(hello)blog

Goodbye blog.

2010-08-03T18:09:00.002-04:00

Soooo, I'm quitting.

Well not really, the plan was always to record year 25 so I could remember it when I was 125, and I'm now almost 26 so I think enough life has been tracked. Also I am kind of lazy and it turns out blogging is much harder than I anticipated. You mean I have to take pictures of that? And upload them? AND write witty things? I'd much rather watch tv and read other people's blogs. So that's what I'm doing - finally updating my google reader, AND (excitement!) joining twitter. So if you are still interested in the random 140 character thoughts that pass through my head, you can find me there at ctt916.

It's been fun blog, maybe we'll meet again some day. Until then, GOODBYE BLOG! Stay classy, planet earth.

Sorry, more plant posts.

2010-06-18T18:50:00.000-04:00

Have I explained to you my obsession with woolly pockets? I desperately want to hang plants on my walls. It looks so cool! And Marie would not be able to chew on them!

More pictures here.

I am curious though about how they hold up, and I don't really have 200 dollars to spend on plant wall hangers. But in my fun new apartment (!!), I will no longer have a balcony, so I need a way to figure out how to keep up my vegetable obsession while avoiding chompy cat teeth. So we'll see...

Since I discovered recently I DO have more than one reader plus mom - has anyone else had any woolly pocket experiences? Do they leak? Aren't they AWESOME LOOKING?

Date saved.

2010-06-16T20:26:00.000-04:00

Hey look a picture that is not of my garden! JWill's Save the Dates are out!

Mmm texty.

Jess and I designed them on photoshop and then printed them through Vistaprint for a total of about 50.00 for 100 postcards. Hooray!

hello again.

2010-06-08T18:50:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm definitely not dead. And hopefully on the mend! But I have been sicky and whiney so excuse the lack of anything up here. It would have just been mopey anyway :)

But hey! A little garden update to tide you over! (one reader and mom).

Lookat that! And so far I have managed to not kill the lettuce (but oh have I tried!) and everything else is growing along well except the cilantro. But that was the aphids fault!

Salad starters

2010-05-13T21:55:00.000-04:00

Yay spring! Yay garden! Yay green!

This year's crop includes tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce, strawberries, spearmint, cilantro, basil, and parsley. Let's see if I can keep them all alive long enough to make some delicious salads.

So far I've only managed a few measly strawberries and I'm still anxiously awaiting buds on the tomatoes and peppers. But seriously just looking at all that green just makes me happy. Can you believe it's almost summer?

Yay!

Waking up is not my favorite

2010-05-12T21:57:00.000-04:00

I think everyone who knows me knows this. But if I have to do it, I might as well do it in style. My old college era alarm clock served me well, but was kind of bulky (it had a CD player - can you believe it?) and I was having trouble keeping it set to any reliable radio station because the cat sat on it in the mornings. She's kind of a jerk. So here's the new addition - small, nice number font (shut it, that was important) and sort of mod looking.

But for some eye candy, here were the other (if I had a million dollars) contenders:

Ok so admittedly, this first one is cheaper than the one I bought, but I also figured it would be less reliable at waking me up. But so cute!

Ok and for these last two I would need an iPod first. I know - GET WITH THE TIMES CINDY.

A going away bouquet

2010-05-11T21:46:00.003-04:00

Made out of Heritage Preservation resources for a buddy who's moving on up.

Best wishes Mary!

Jess and I are flower arranging superstars

2010-05-08T16:11:00.000-04:00

Jess: Sorry for doubting your flower arranging skills the other day.

Cindy: Oh don't worry about it, whatever.

Jess: I just wanted to make sure I didn't hurt your feelings.

Cindy: You didn't. You just made me need to prove myself.

Jess: oh boy.

Some inspirations:

Two random grocery store bouquets later:

Take that Sheer.

Also that bouquet now belongs to my Mom. Happy Mother's Day!

Hey Savannah!

2010-05-07T22:34:00.000-04:00

Work sent me to hot, sticky Savannah for a night this week:

Jess and I had a brief semi-romantic B&B vacation there a few years ago and I was thrilled at the chance to go back, even if it was short. That city just has CHARM. And with a storm rolling in and summer basically in full swing, it was pretty much just tropical.

Makes me wish a little that I had gone to SCAD for grad school. Especially since I would have been able to go to the SCAD store and browse pretty things everyday. But don't worry DC, I was happy to come home to you :)

New list of things I want from blogs

2010-05-06T01:45:00.000-04:00

I should just stop reading them.

le sigh. who wants to give me a million dollars?!! Or just buy me a lot of presents?

COOLS

2010-05-03T23:02:00.000-04:00

Hey there nerd friends, check this out!
http://si-siris.blogspot.com/
It's the official Smithsonian blog, reporting on interesting pieces in their collections, various tales from the accession and conservation departments, and fun historical facts and tidbits.

It's basically just the coolest thing ever.

Being realistic

2010-04-29T21:55:00.000-04:00

When I grow up (in 5-10 years) I would love a house with a room specifically set aside as a library and a Restoration Hardware leather chair holder. But being realistic, this will probably not happen. I mean I will certainly have a lot of books, and probably I will have suckered myself into buying a leather chair, but I might not end up with a designated room to put them in. So I am using this picture as inspiration to start dreaming about designated bedroom/libraries with rainbow order books on either side of the bed. Oh so cozy. And much easier to access! And there will probably still be room for the leather chair.

I do love you because you are beautiful adorable little bedroom! But I guess if I am being realistic I should also note that having white bedspread + super hairy cat = bad idea.
Full post full of lovely here.

Tweet tweet

2010-04-29T01:31:00.000-04:00

This is just ridiculous:

And while we are on the subject, maybe I am making a twitter? I feel like I am missing out on this valuable stalking tool, and if there is one more thing I need in my life, it is more distractions. Also now that I am officially a gmail, I have a sudden need to update my google reader, get a flickr account, and start twitter so that my social media life is complete.
AND THEN THE INTERNET TAKES OVER THE WORLD. Or something like that.

And on the subject of exaggerations, this will certainly be one of the first blogs that I follow.
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/
Hilarious with a capital H.

Remember how I was going to write about music?

2010-04-27T02:13:00.000-04:00

Originally mentioned here, a year and a bunch of days ago. Then somehow along the way I got caught up with buildings and never got around to it. Also I might have started listening to cd's of musicals in my car which always ends up in me yodeling "the lonely goatherd" and not feeling very inspired to make any sort of worthwhile musical commentary.

And actually, I don't have anything particularly insightful to say today, except that it is spring and this has been on loop in my head (and my car) for a week or so now:

Oh Strauss, how soaring and swelling and peaceful and lovely! Waltzes are the pop of classical music. There I said it. NERDSAUCE.

Cindy vs. the new cable box

2010-04-24T13:22:00.000-04:00

A funny story, in case you are bored.

Comcast recently starting spam mailing me to let me know that if I wanted to keep all my cable channels then I was going to have to get a new digital converter box OR ELSE. And I procrastinated and OR ELSE happened, and I was no longer able to watch Bravo. Sadness! So I sent away for the box and requested the self install option because I am a grown up and an independent woman and come on how hard can it be.

So the box came with a lot of parts and instructions and I unplugged and replugged in everything that is remotely near the television, called the number to "activate" and waited. An hour and a half later all I had was fuzzy blackness, which was way worse than no Bravo. So I gave in and called Comcast help, and the young guy on the phone was indeed very helpful but also very patronizing because obviously I was a girl and I had done something wrong. SHUT UP CABLE MAN. I know I did it right. I double checked everything! And just when he was out of options on his end and suggesting that I make sure the cable was connected to the wall (DUH OF COURSE I DID THAT) I noticed that I had not in fact connected the cable box to the TV. Oops.

So I hurriedly told the help guy that I thought, "maybe I just need to uh re start it or something" and put down the phone and connected the two most obviously essential pieces of the cable tv assembly. And magic! Bravo! and VH1! I thanked my helper, who laughed at me and said, "that worked?" and I hung up the phone and then spent the next 30 mins fighting with the new remote control.

Ok so I am bad at technology. Independent woman fail. But you should see me make cookies! I am really good at cookies.

We are making some invitations...

2010-04-23T23:18:00.000-04:00

To a big fun fancy party...
(that was sing-song, obviously)

Anyway, some inspirations:

Also exciting is that this weekend is flower centerpiece brainstorming, whether Jess is ready for it or not. And I have to do some more organizing because my/Jess's wedding binder is SO OUT OF DATE. OMG. What have I been doing?

How does she know?

2010-04-22T23:45:00.000-04:00

The way into my heart? HELLO RAINBOW COLOR SCHEMES!!

Thanks Martha. I am basically just bursting with sunshine and unicorns over here.

Some spring crafties

2010-03-29T23:46:00.000-04:00

Fun picnic recipe book for a fun brunch bridal shower:

And fun brunch invitations for a fun brunch brunch:

brunch brunch brunch.

brunch.

The awesome font in both projects is Arsenale White, found here.

The delicious nectarine and mozzarella skewers drizzled with pesto in the last photo are exactly that!

Disney in March

2010-03-29T23:15:00.000-04:00

Oh man this trip invented so many inside jokes.

Sancho Panza.

Birds!

Twist!

Well this one is just funny.

Where is it on my boob? Fish are the new birds

Protect the wall! (hey look how short Lisa is)

Do I look like a diva?

Also there were giraffes in the backyard. Yeah.

Cleaning out my architecture link file

2010-03-03T23:51:00.000-05:00

While perusing the blagoblogs I often collect links to pretty little things with intentions of later pointing them out here. And then I get lazy and forget about them or something cool happens and they just keep living in my inbox. Time for some spring cleaning!

Dear Zaha Hadid, this is super cool looking.
Does it make me a girl if I like this because OOO SHINY.
A (theoretical) man-made floating spa island. Awesome.
Again, shiny. Reminds me of the Tord Boontje lamps I dream about owning...
Go Baltimore! A warehouse turned bank.
Another entry for the competition mentioned here - I like this one better. Stained glass for the 21st century!
I would like one of these please. Tree houses for the 21st century!

- Mid link break: I had forgotten what most of these were, and I am having a BLAST re-looking at all of them! -

While I'm not keen on all of these, the idea of bed and tv next to pool is very appealing...I can almost smell the sweet wafts of chlorine from here...
cutest little cabin ever. i want to go to there.
FUN.
"Van Berkel compares the twisting structure to serialism in contemporary music, since it shares the ability to absorb and regulate intervals, interruptions, changes of direction, and leaps of scale without losing its continuity." Enough said.
And a rainbow of rooms to end.

OH MAN I REALLY ENJOYED THAT. Feeling very inspired to just do something designy right now...

Because one can never have enough projects

2010-03-02T21:11:00.000-05:00

Paper wall: check. Furniture rearranging: check. New artwork: check. New lamps: check. New desk reorganization: YES PLEASE.

And so I have a new project. Here is the current state of my desk, just so I can take an after picture and admire the changes. Boring right?

I'm thinking a little of this:

And maybe one of these:

Something from here just because I want an excuse:

And definitely a new lampshade. Splurge?

I'm trying to decide if I can flip it over and make it fit on the lamp base I already have. Most likely I will end up covering a white one in paper, but a girl can dream.

ready, set, reorganize!

More NBM on The Ten Miles Square

2010-03-02T01:38:00.001-05:00

Now with more Grandpa!

Wrist slap

2010-03-02T01:37:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been a bad blogger. But the Olympics have been on! And I have been feeling really lazy! So as a quick recap, since we left off:

New lamps! That I think look awesome! (finally! more obsessing about this here and here)

SNOMG!

Valentine's!

Boston!

There you go world, all caught up. I also realized that despite random pauses in motivation, I've had this blog now for a full year, which is more than I have ever kept any sort of diary in my life. So really, go me!

New project

2010-02-04T01:43:00.000-05:00

We got these adorables 5 year journals in to Paper Source at the beginning of the month and I was only able to resist them until last week. I'm a sucker for a cute little book and the idea of preserving my past. Maybe someday when computers explode and this blog is lost, this journal this will be an important item for people to understand how we all lived in the oh tens. Also I am an ego maniac.

Anyway, I feel like 25-30 (ACK IN FIVE YEARS I WILL BE 30) is a pretty significant age range, so hopefully I'll keep up with it. It's set up basically like the paper equivalent of twitter - for each page there is one date and then five slots where you record a brief thought for that day for the next five years. Today's thought: "Playing video games after semi-grown up dinner with Stacy and John is exactly how I am supposed to spend my twenties." Truth.

Roundy is too a word.

2010-01-27T22:30:00.000-05:00

Perhaps it's just the new beautiful comforter that I still haven't gotten over, but I'm really feeling roundy things right now.

Like these lovelies from this etsy shop:

And this wall art, found here:

And this awesome design competition entry:

And aww:

Finally

2010-01-27T00:42:00.000-05:00

A long time ago before:

and after!

Based on this, and somewhat this, and using several months worth of toilet paper, paper towel and wrapping paper tubes, I now have new artwork for above my elaborately colored bed. In my professional opinion, it looks totally awesome.

Careful observers will also notice a new lamp. But that's a story for another day.

New artwork extreme close-up!

For fun

2010-01-14T13:09:00.000-05:00

So this is fun: http://www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/

A quiz about fonts! With a history lesson! Most excellent. Van Doesburg was apparently designed by an architect (nice) and each letter is designed to take up exactly the same amount of space as the next so that no one character gets preference. I like it. Originally discovered here - the password is character.

Also fun:

AHHH. I love Paperwink for their adorables rubber stamps and invititations. And now personalized journals? Swoon.

p.s. - just noticed that the color range for the journals above is called "gelato". Double swoon.

Feeling thankful

2010-01-13T01:13:00.000-05:00

For new pillows, architecture pop up books, a lot of TV on DVD, the end of a successful Christmas season and the start of a new year!

These puppies are headed out in the mail tomorrow - feels good to feel thankful.

Now with trivia!

2010-01-12T02:24:00.000-05:00

There's always something fun over at The Ten Miles Square: http://thetenmilessquare.blogspot.com/

Put. ze candle. back.

2010-01-07T23:42:00.000-05:00

If, like me, you live in DC and have a great affection for both Mel Brooks movies and splashy musicals, I highly recommend the Kennedy Center's current production of Young Frankenstein after seeing it last Wednesday night. There is singing, dancing, strobe lights, and one liners galore! And Roger Bart is really hilarious. As a devoted Young Frankenstein fan, the best part was waiting for the actors to say the lines that everyone knows (Great Knockers!) and having the familiar story amplified by tap dancing Frankensteins really didn't hurt. Perhaps it was just because I was there on a Wednesday night, but the theater seemed pretty empty, so interested viewers could probably go the night of and pick up some awesome last minute half price tickets.

And speaking of musical spectaculars, I did finally see Nine recently and like anything that has to do with Italy, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm off to go blast some musicals on iTunes and chasse down the hallway. Step, ball change!

Let there be lights

2010-01-06T21:27:00.000-05:00

I'm heading to IKEA this weekend for a long overdue trip to get some new lights for my room. I'm sort of over the dorm room staple I've got at the moment and am looking for something a little sleeker.

So far these are my IKEA options:
The Standard
Possibly, if I can figure out where to put it
Or I could get two of these or these
And maybe this little guy for my desk

And with some Target gift certificates burning a hole in my pocket, I might switch out the bedside lamp for one of these:
Option 1
Option 2 (although I might not be able to live with myself for buying something called "Simply Shabby Chic")

And then I dream about having a reason for these

And oh man these

New Year

2010-01-05T23:31:00.000-05:00

New Datebook.

Mmm Hambly.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T12:37:00.000-05:00

2010 - what! The future! We are in it!
This one is going to be fantastic. I can feel it.

I thought as a fun little game, I'd list up some highlights from this last decade, in which I went from age 15 to age 25. (possibly the strangest realization I've had in a while) And I thought 5 to 15 was big.

2000: Sophomore/Junior year of high school: I go to extra 5am practices to fight my way back onto Juniors/Seniors swim team. Grown up Cindy will look back on this with awe.
2001: Junior/Senior year of high school: I survive AP American History/my first dance concert since age 4. AP history exam yielded a 5, dance concert yielded really embarrassing video tapes.
2002: Senior year of high school/Freshman year of college: The memories are endless. Also the year I met Jess. Epic.
2003: Freshman/Sophomore year of college: Why was I so scared of college? I hate calculus and physics. I love everything else.
2004: Sophomore/Junior year of college: ROME. Life changing. And then studio. Sleep habit changing.
2005: Junior/Senior year of college: Studio is all consuming but completely fantastic. Solid solid friendships are born at 3am while sharing drafting dots. And Marie Antoinette the cat supersedes Jess as the coolest thing in my life.
2006: Senior year of college/Year one of grad school: In the same year I decide I don't want to be an architect, I go to Spain, I get into grad school, I go to Disney World, and then I go back to Rome. And then I move into DC. And start classes again. And start working at Paper Source.
2007: Year one/Year two of grad school: Realize I have found what I love. Let's go save some buildings! At some point or another, work three part time jobs in addition to grad school. A girl's gotta support her fancy urban lifestyle.
2008: Year two of grad school/Year one of real life: But I was just 15 yesterday! Graduate for good. Get a real live full time job. Downsize to one part time job.
2009: Real life: So it is. I manage to bring the Rome tally up to 3 and then spend the rest of the year celebrating with the gang I've been with since good ol' 2000.

And here we are! Let's bring on the next 10 years!

New to do

2009-12-30T21:49:00.000-05:00

I'm not usually one for New Year's resolutions (too many broken ones I suppose) but I am one for making New Year's craft idea to do lists. A whole new year! New endless crafty possibilities! So much potential to not squander time in front of the television!

I have high hopes. So here are some pretty things I am interested in adding to this year's to do list:

Problem: wall above bed now that my comforter looks like this. Solution: This. I've been saving up tubes for months!
This is just too much fun not to make for something or another.
Not necessarily a craft, but a clever idea...
I don't know what I would ever do with this, but the idea of turning soda bottles into chandeliers is very intriguing.
And, dusty shelf of jars above the stairs, get ready for an upgrade!

hello holidays

2009-12-30T02:16:00.000-05:00

So all of a sudden it's almost January - does anyone else feel like this year's Thanksgiving to Christmas turnaround was faster than ever? I naturally had 7,000 projects to accomplish in the intervening month and I made it through maybe 3 of them. (obviously blogging was not one of them) But thanks to this overwhelming (and exciting!) amount of snow:

I was able to hunker down and accomplish this:

Happy Holidays!

Read me!

2009-12-28T14:55:00.000-05:00

http://thetenmilessquare.blogspot.com/

Cindy and Kumar celebrate fall fun

2009-11-05T00:10:00.000-05:00

UMD homecoming game: Freezing cold and rain can apparently not deter my sister from wanting to watch the Terrapins get beat by UVA. Perhaps not my favorite event of the season, but an adventure nonetheless.

West Wing White House Tour: Pretty great. I saw the Oval Office, the Rose Garden, the Press Room, and Kal Penn giving a personal tour. I touched the wall of the inside of the Oval Office (we couldn't walk into it) just so that I could say that I did. I did.

Apple and pumpkin picking: After another beautiful week spent in the office, I went out in the pouring rain to enjoy my fall over the weekend. And the company I was with made it plenty enjoyable even if the weather was not cooperating. Also contributing to the enjoyable were the 10 pounds of apples, the pumpkin, the fresh bread, the apple cider, and the bbq flavored cheese. Oh and the delicious McDonald's double cheeseburger I ate on the way home.

Charlottesville trip: More uncooperative weather, but Monticello shines even when the clouds are gray. The leaves were SPECTACULAR, the vineyard and brewery tours tasty, and the company fabtab. We also got a front row view of drunk yuppie Halloween while stuck in traffic at midnight on the Key Bridge. Exciting day all around.

FALL FUN!

Click if you dare

2009-11-04T21:00:00.000-05:00

The Ten Miles Square spooky underground version.....(kind of)
OOooooo......

It's not my wedding

2009-10-29T21:12:00.000-04:00

It's ours. I mean it's Jess's and Will's. Coming up in now just under a year! Which means I am quickly running out of time to convince them that buying a rowhouse and letting me live in the basement is obviously the only way to proceed once Jess moves out. I will pay rent with kitchen cleaning skills and hugs. In the meantime, I no longer have to come up with excuses for spending my evenings looking at wedding blogs on the internet (no I am not imagining any future weddings of my own, I am just getting inspiration for dinner parties...) I can now tell people I'm planning OUR wedding. I mean theirs...

Some fun things that might be featured at the Oct. 2010 event:

This place
A photo booth set up, probably with mustaches
These color and mod type inspirations
Easy going flowers in mix matched vases
It might not work in the space, but string lights are in the idea pool
I get to pick my own black dress. Hmmm
I am making one of these for my hair
and Cupcakes! (ok not those specifically, but I wish)

It's really all about making history

2009-10-29T01:20:00.000-04:00

For those who don't know, at the non-profit I work for a great deal of my job is spent promoting the idea of emergency preparedness to cultural institutions across the U.S. Which means I spend a great deal of my day thinking about worst case scenarios for invaluable pieces of cultural heritage, like all of my pictures. Ha! But just you wait - someday, when computers die, someone will be so glad I took so many photos and carefully preserved them all in fireproof boxes so that they can know how people lived in the technological age. I am only kind of being sarcastic there. Seriously, when I worked at the MD State Archives and had to go through people's old family albums looking for pictures of the MD State House, I was so glad when I found what the photographer might have considered just a throwaway shot that included some angle of the building from a certain period in its history that we didn't have documentation of yet. You never know! So someday I will have a fireproof box. For the moment I just have Pioneer albums, a million CD's of images from now deceased computers, and I'm working my way through the piles of old printed photos trying to remember what year they are from. And boy have I uncovered some classics.

Me, cross-eyed at age 1

Lisa stealing the Thompson family birthday show at ages, 6, 4, and 1

Lisa doing it again at 12, 10, and 7

Hardcore

Twin Day, senior year of high school

Prom!

Freshman year of college

Fun!

Fall so far

2009-10-28T01:10:00.000-04:00

Despite the rainy weekends, I've been pressing ahead with all my fall enjoyment activities so far. There was a visit to the solar decathlon (see the winning entry here, and a thrilling blog post about one of DC's first "green" buildings here), a very cold and rainy UMD homecoming game, and an even more rainy, though slightly less cold apple and pumpkin picking trip. (more on those later) But in the series of posts of "things I did forever ago that I am just getting around to writing now", my for my first official fall event I went to Denver at the end of September for a quick little work related trip. This was an exciting opportunity as I had never been to Denver, or Colorado, or anywhere on the ground between Chicago and the West Coast. It was neat to be able to see the Rockies from pretty much any vantage point in the city, and the weather there was perfect and fall-like during my stay. The city must have been redeveloped around the same time as Baltimore because its more recent buildings all sort of reminded me of my "hometown" city, but unlike the East Coast its historic properties only date back to the Gold Rush era. Nothing Colonial because there were no Colonials out there; in fact at the time the country was founded we were not totally sure that that place existed. HISTORY IS FASCINATING! I particularly enjoyed my tour of the 1880s era"unsinkable" Molly Brown House (who was actually named Margaret and took private lessons for two years to learn how to yodel at house parties) and the luxurious B&B I stayed in which was built in the same neighborhood in the same time period. It should certainly be mentioned that for the two nights I stayed there I had my own bedroom, bathroom, living room, and full kitchen. I stored an unfinished fountain soda in the fridge so I felt like I was getting the most out of it.

The city also has a fair amount of modern - like the Michael Graves Denver Public Library where we had our (successful!) work meeting, and the LEED Gold rated Museum of Contemporary Art which I visited with the guidance of long time pal and new Denver local Cindy M. She is lucky enough to have a lovely apartment right next to Larimer Square, which was one of historic preservation's biggest early coups. In the 1970's redevelopment in the city threatened to wipe out all that was left of the original Denver that had sprung up around the pan mining businesses in Cherry Creek. After one woman's passionate fight for her city's heritage, a few blocks worth of quality late 19th century properties were saved and are now today a thriving shopping, living, and entertainment district. With lights strung across the street! Why doesn't everyone do that?

Good one Denver.

Previewland

2009-10-16T21:35:00.000-04:00

I have seen more movies this past week than ever in my life. Except this summer when I saw Harry Potter like five times in two weeks. But this week it's been different movies (and really only three). But since the weather is pretty gross this weekend, I thought perhaps the internet world would like some suggestions of things to see.

The Informant

Funny, compelling, super well written and definitely Matt Damon's Monster moment.

Zombieland

My brother forced me into seeing it after giving it a solid 10 million stars, and I agree. Totally hilarious, kind of sweet and just scary enough.

and Where the Wild Things Are

It's just like being in the head of a child - sort of surreal. Also it made me cry. But those Henson Workshop costumes and crazy set scenery make it all worth it.

Does have.

2009-10-15T22:20:00.000-04:00

Remember how I said I wanted this stuff?

I GOT THIS.

AND THIS.

The bedding is pretty bright for my room and is probably going to warrant a whole wall art rehaul. Whatever I love it. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. And that shirt is my new favorite.

Everyone should get themselves a Jess. (Because that's how I got those things)

Jury Duty is the worst

2009-10-14T00:26:00.000-04:00

I've been on a Jury since last Wednesday and so far my opinion of it is not very high. In the end the defendant is guilty or the police who are testifying against him are liars so someone has to be the bad guy. I don't particularly like this view of the world. At which point do they bring out the cupcakes and we all have a dance party?

Hopefully it will all be over soon. In the meantime I've been able to eat lunch on the National Mall and in The Building Museum, and write this blog for The Ten Miles Square. Enjoy!

BRING ON THE FALL!

2009-10-05T01:57:00.000-04:00

"Fall Fun" is the official term for a tradition of enjoying the most superior of seasons that was started by a group of friends of mine in college and has managed to withstand the tests of time and grad school and weddings and new apartments and is just one of my favorite things ever. For me fall starts with my birthday in the middle of September and then snowballs through October and November to Thanksgiving, and then it's Christmas. Glorious Christmas. I spend the first three days of summer enjoying the heat and then I just pout my way through until Fall Fun. And it's here! We are still in the planning stages but at the moment it looks like we've secured a date for apple picking, I'll be attending the UMD homecoming game to watch my mom walk out on the field with the rest of the Class of 1980 swim team, and I have a trip planned to visit a friend at UVA to enjoy Monticello and fall leaves and possibly a vineyard. Things are looking good. I've also been tossing around some ideas for our annual Faux Thanksgiving Spectacular - it's never too early to start thinking about invitations... I can't wait for it all to get here, but in the meantime, here are some photos from some past Fall Fun festivities to heighten the anticipation.

I could never live anywhere where all of that couldn't happen. Hooray East Coast! Hooray Mid-Atlantic! Hooray Fall!

Let's build one in the U.S.

2009-10-03T01:56:00.000-04:00

Having just returned from a European vacation, I am naturally contemplating what I will do when I eventually go back. I was in Paris for a weekend when I studied abroad in 2006 and I have lovely warm springtime memories of our time there. But I had also pretty much figured that I could check the city off my list since there is a WHOLE WORLD out there to see and I am OMG already 25. But then I heard about this museum from a colleague and am reconsidering my stance: http://www.citechaillot.fr/?langue=us

A whole museum of buildings, not just about buildings, but it has PIECES of buildings INSIDE. Large pieces. From Medieval Abbeys to a reconstruction of A WHOLE CORB APARTMENT. It sounds totally amazing. Also the museum's mission is basically my new life motto:

The Cite de L'Architecture and du Patrimoine is entirely dedicated to promoting the architecture of the present day as well as the past. It is a main center for the dissemination of knowledge for everything dealing with architectural quality, the promotion of our heritage, and the preservation of the urban environment.

Um, yes.

Also tangentially related, I've had this link sitting around for a while waiting for an excuse to post not because it is about historic structures, but because the man who was interviewed as their advocate is hilarious. He at one point refers to new structures going up in Moscow as "architectural mongrels." HAH.

Read for a laugh: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/24/report-warns-of-threat-to-moscow-architecture

And after my vacation I turned 25

2009-10-01T01:55:00.000-04:00

And I made myself some totally awesome cupcakes. Based off of this recipe that I made for Jess on her birthday, I've since made a few other iterations of the infamous rainbow cake, and it seemed a shame if I didn't end up with one for myself. So several hours of new fall tv premieres later, TA-DAA!

They were central to my birthday get together that was very well attended and a special thanks goes out to all my buddies for helping me start off my second quarter century with a bang. Let's do it again when we are 50 shall we?

Cindy's version of The Rainbow Cake:

Buy a box of white cake mix (I usually get anything with "moist" on the label), a can of frosting, and a package of gel food coloring. This last ingredient is the most important, regular liquid food dyes are not strong enough to make the intense colors, the gel food dyes are thicker and better. They are sold in the grocery store in the cake section (usually near the candles and sprinkles and such).

Mix the cake mix using the instructions on the box, then evenly separate the batter into 6 bowls. I usually take a cup measure and put a 1/2 cup in each and then sort of divide up the rest. Add the dye to each bowl keeping in mind that you need to blend colors to make orange and purple (so don't use all the red in one go). Mix the dye and the cake batter in each bowl until the color of the batter is as bright as you want. The brighter the batter, the brighter the cake so don't be afraid to go all out.

Grease your cake pans and then layer the batter into the pans in some sort of color order. (I usually go ROYGBVBYOR) Don't worry about pouring one color over another, they won't blend unless you stir them together. Then bake! And ice! And eat!

So I went to Europe

2009-10-01T01:10:00.000-04:00

I know I went on this trip practically a month ago, but things have been intense. I returned into the full swing of Thompson sibling birthday week and then took a work related trip to Denver so this is the first week where I'm finally getting back into real life mode. With all those presents and birthday cakes and travel things have been REALLY TOUGH around here. So let's play some catch-up:

WENIG (litte, in german) VACANZA (vacation, in italian)

There are some fav photos here, but for a select 150 (from my almost 400 total) you can facebook stalk me: http://www.facebook.com/ctt916

Days 1 and 2 were spent in Vienna, Austria with the tour guide expertise and sweet (free) lodgings of my friend Ruth. Ruth is from Austria but studied in the States so she has the dual benefits of knowing where everything is and being able to tell me how to get there in English. I had a wonderful time seeing her city and was so impressed with the combination of old and modern architecture so seamlessly woven together. Two places where this was especially apparent were the Museum's Quartier - a complex of four museums, two old, two very new that sit around a courtyard that is a hip gathering place - and Ruth's apartment building, the Gasometer towers - a set of four old gas towers that have been reconverted into apartments, a mall, and an entertainment complex with the addition of a huge glass skyscraper and several sky bridges. Vienna overall is just charming, and somehow managed to score really impressive Avant Garde and Roccoco building stock while skipping over the more unsightly steps in between (I'm looking at you 1970's Washington DC). Some of the highlights for me, seeing things straight from my architecture text books (Karlskirche and the lovely Jugendstil jem of the Secession building) and enjoying an Apfelsaftschorle (yea say that three times fast) in the cafe in the Gloriette in the rather extensive Schoenbrunn palace gardens. Straight up princess like. I'll be back Ruth!

Days 3 and 4 were spent in Rome, my beloved second home. Can I be corny here? I think my heart is Rome shaped. Even being on the crowded smelly bus with all my luggage jolting down the ridculous cobblestone streets through the ludicrous traffic to my hotel made me SO HAPPY. I can't believe how familiar it all is still. Just like riding a bike. I had much of the first day to myself, so I just kind of wandered around through the Campo-Pantheon-Piazza Navona area and let myself get overwhelmed with nostalgia. There really is something about that city. Here when I smell diesel engines and cigarettes and ancient sewers I get disgusted and walk faster, there somehow it is completely intoxicating. Maybe because the sewers are more ancient and the cigarettes and engines are unfiltered? It makes me want to speak Italian very loudly and put on sunglasses and walk across streets like I own them. Rest assured, I actually do none of these things because I know only a little Italian, and I don't own sunglasses, and I am interested in not breaking my legs, but when in Rome... I desperately want to be Roman. So that first day I did my best Roman impression (lengthening my ll's on "allora") until Jess and Will arrived, and then Jess and I set out to give Will the best freaking 20 hour Rome tour he could have, stopping only momentarily for cappucinos and gelato. Between our two days we saw pretty much everything, including PIZZA BOOM which was open (last time it was closed!) and full of pizza and suppli and memories. Will's highlight was the Vatican, because St. Peter's is oh so grand and when we were there the sun was setting and the piazza was calm and it was pretty perfect. Jess's and my highlight will continue to be the Pantheon, which has always been good to us, and is to me, so quintessentially Roman with connections to ancient, Renaissance and modern times. On our last night in the city Jess and I went and just sat under the portico for probably an hour, commenting that being under there was like being hugged by a building. Well it doesn't get much better than that.

Days 5 and 6 were spent in Lake Como with Jess while Will jetted off to Ireland to meet up with his family. I had wanted to go to the lake area for a while because it's pretty and mansions and etc, but I really had no idea how impressive it was. Those are MOUNTAINS. And that is a LAKE. And it is blue and there are houses climbing up the hills, and it's sort of like someone took Cinque Terre and looped it around so that when you are in one teetering mountainside city you are looking across the beautiful expanse of water to the next. Even just taking the commuter ferry boats from town to town is a breathtaking experience. We spent the first day climbing a MOUNTAIN - literally - to get to a castle ruin with really fantastic lake views, and then the second day we took a much more laid back approach and just wandered around one of the towns buying things and drinking frulatti and living la dolce vita. We also, in true Jess fashion, ended up with 2 pounds of cheese from a local market, and ate it grandly in a piazza accompanied by figs in the morning, and then sort of less grandly when we were starving on the train ride home several hours later. Yes. We ate all of it.

Day 7 was spent working off that cheese by walking all over Rome to see some things we didn't have a chance to fit in during Will's Grand Tour, most notably Villa Borghese, the Modern Art Museum (in lieu of Galleria Borghese which continues to be the most difficult museum to get in to of all time) and the new Richard Meier Ara Pacis Museum. (For those who are interested, it is big, white, and looks like Richard Meier.) We also bought tons of things that we certainly don't need but desperately wanted and finished off our Roman holiday with dinner at da Gighetto, a real Roman haunt in the old Jewish Ghetto. It was the perfect way to end the trip, far off the beaten tourist path, surrounded by Italians and waiters who felt no need to speak to us in English, and at the end of our meal, the Italian man sitting next to us turned and asked, "Excuse me, my girlfriend and I are very curious, we are wondering, why are you here?". We were so flattered. We walked from there to the Pantheon to get in our quality time and then departed to figure out how in the crap we were going to pack all of the things we had bought and still make it home. Somehow we did it, and now the difficulty is figuring out how in the carp (typo that I am leaving!) we are going to fit all those things into our apartment. I suppose I could have worse troubles.

So that was the trip! It went by entirely too quickly for the years of planning I put into it, but when I left this time I was not too terribly sad. I just sort of had this feeling like, "well I'll be back sooner or later" and I know that it is true.

Va bene!

Birthday!

2009-09-17T01:22:00.000-04:00

25! Officially joining the big kid club. And I do kind of feel more grown up than yesterday, or perhaps just a little less jet lagged. Regardless, here are some big kid thoughts for my big day.

"It's natural to look back, to wonder who you were then. Surprise - pretty much who you are now, especially when things get emotional, just buried under layers of experience and better clothing choices."
-Sarah Brown, from Cringe

and

"Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself."
-Unknown

Truth to the last one. I'm off to go do some more creating.

You will be fortunate in everything you put your hands to

2009-08-31T21:45:00.000-04:00

Today I got crappy delicious Chinese food for lunch because last night I was too lazy to make anything and really my fridge is kind of empty. But there is no point in shopping this week because on Saturday... I GO TO EUROPE. I can think of nothing else except of various orderly ways to organize my clothes in the tiny bags I intend to put them in. Anyway, while enjoying my complimentary fortune cookie, my fortune read "You will be fortunate in everything you put your hands to." (in bed. I know. haha) I kept it in the hopes that this will make it come true, because I really have the best laid plans for this vacation - copious to do lists, info sheets full of bus and train schedules, several copies of all ticket and hotel information - but it is the terrible crumbling potential fate of these plans that is keeping me on edge this week. Also the anticipation of reuniting with the Pantheon.

But seriously, naysayers, I have GOOD REASON to be so anxious. And I know I have told this story one hundred million times to everyone I know, but here it is written down so that I can remember for always. Be assured 85 year old Cindy and teenage grandchildren, it is ALL TRUE. So here you go, the story of the last time I went to Rome.

In 2006 Jess and I planned a 'Return to Roma' spectacular tour to revisit the places we had fallen in love with while studying abroad in the spring of 2004. I wrote hundreds of lists, compiled clear and detailed itineraries, and made plans to meet up with some friends who would also be in Rome at the time. Jess and I ended up on different flights, but I was set to arrive in the Rome airport about an hour before her, so it was decided that I would just find her terminal and meet her when she got off the plane. Then we would travel to the hotel I had booked and spend the next two weeks pretending to be Romans again. We were desperately excited.

On the day of our departures I arrived at BWI approximately one hundred years early, sat at my gate and reread all my to do lists. The flight arrived, we all got on, and then the pilot asked us all to get off because there was something wrong with the plane's tire and they needed an hour to fix it. This was annoying, but fine, as my connecting flight in JFK was not until much later in the evening. We got off and those who were going to miss connecting flights were soothed by the gate agent who told them that as this was the fault of the airline and not the weather, they would be put up in airport hotels and set up with the next available flight from JFK onward.

After about an hour we all got back on, went out to the runway, and then had to wait to get back into the flight pattern for take off. We did a lot of waiting, and another few hours later, were taxied back to the airport because there were apparently deadly storms at JFK airport and no one was being allowed to land. This was disconcerting. We got back off the plane, an hour later got rushed back on, and finally took off approximately 4 hours after we were supposed to leave. My connecting flight at JFK took off without me while I was still enroute.

It turned out that everyone on the plane was in the same boat, almost all 30ish passengers were making international flights, and everyone had missed their connection at JFK. Those who had been comforted by the gate agents at BWI told the rest of us the good news that because the first problem was the tire, and if we hadn't had that problem we would have missed the storms, then we were entitled to at most standby seats on the next flights to our destinations, and at least a night in a hotel. I knew there was one last flight to Rome that left JFK about two hours after we were set to arrive and I put my hopes in that. There was another woman on the flight who was also supposed to be traveling to Rome, and the two of us decided we would go ask for standby tickets together. I would arrive 45 minutes after Jess, but we had been in enough contact before her flight left for her to know that something was up, so I hoped that she would just go to the hotel and wait for me.

We arrived to a JFK terminal that was nothing short of hell on earth. About three other flights had all just arrived after also being held up by the storms, and the place was teeming with about 200 angry travelers who all needed standby seats and airport hotels and someone to complain to. I had not been anticipating this. Standby seats for two lost Rome travelers seemed probable, standby seats for 50 was impossible. The gate agents had apparently also come to this conclusion, as they had taken to standing on their desks and yelling at the riotous crowd, "NO MORE FLIGHTS! NO HOTELS!". This obviously was the most helpful thing for them to do, and the crowd pleasantly responded by making plans to hurl them out of the windows and celebrate around a tribal drum circle with spears and headdresses made out of now useless airline tickets.

Amidst this madness I was on the verge of totally falling to pieces. If I had to wait until the next day for a flight I wouldn't make it to Italy until the next NEXT day, and Jess would have no idea where I was, and the hotel might not let her in because it was booked on my credit card, and my friends who were supposed to meet me at Piazza Navona at eight would think I was a total lamewad slacker. Also I was going to have to sleep in an airport. My life was over. Then from somewhere in the crowd, the other Rome traveler from the original BWI flight grabbed my arm and yelled, "Hey Roma, let's go to Alitalia!" I realized that I did not know this woman's name and she did not know mine, but she might have very well just saved my life by pulling me out of my misery and coming up with a feasible solution. We ran across the miles of airport to the Alitalia terminal and pleaded with the agent to let us wait for standby tickets for the last flight of the night. The Italian flight attendant chided us for not making the standby arrangement at the Delta terminal, but I lied (in my very best Italian) and told her that the screaming women at the Delta terminal had sent us there instead. Perhaps it was my earnest attempts at Italian, or perhaps the desperate looks on our faces, but she relented and put us on the list.

I finally got formally introduced to my new best friend, who it turns out was meeting up with a cruise tour in Rome and if she didn't get to leave until the next day would have to figure out how to meet up with the boat at the next port. There was one other standby flier, a young guy who had also been on one of the flights that had arrived to the terrifying Delta terminal and had come up with the idea to try the Alitalia terminal about 3 minutes before we did. Because of this they called him first for a place on the flight, and my friend and I begrudgingly offered up our congratulations as he sprinted off through security. We continued to wait. Things looked dim. And then, finally they called for the woman I was with...but not me. She was very distressed and told me to take her place, and said she could never leave me there by myself, but I assured her that I would be fine, that my roommate potentially having to sleep in the hotel lobby for a night was a way better option than her having to hitchhike to her tour boat's next port. She hugged me, went up to the woman at the terminal, and then turned around and came running back exclaiming, "Cindy! Cindy! They meant you too! They meant you too!" Apparently the Alitalia woman had been under the impression that this woman was my mother and when she had gotten up to the desk the Alitalia agents had asked why she was leaving her daughter behind. I almost cried. Ok I did cry a little. And I hugged this new best friend of mine, whose name I have now forgotten, but whose kindness I will never forget, and we got a special pass through security and made it on the plane and FINALLY, light years later, I landed in Italy. And miracle of miracles, Jess was waiting for me at my gate. I have never been so happy to see her in my life. It turned out that my luggage was not waiting for me, but that was no real surprise, so I borrowed some things from Jess, bought some new things from Zara, and did some more hugging when the hotel manager told me that my bags had arrived two days later. And I met up with my friends, and Jess and I went to Venice and Turin, and ate mountains of gelato, and watched the World Cup unfold, and had an amazing amazing time. And then.

Oh yea. It keeps going.

And then it was time to go home. While I was going back to the US, Jess was actually catching a train to Germany the next evening to meet up with her family, and so we sadly said goodbye to our adopted hometown and packed our bags. My flight left at 9am from Rome's airport, but I was taking no chances this time, and called a taxi to pick me up at 4am. At 4:30am I sat in front of the empty ticketing desk and waited until the attendant showed up at 6. I was obviously first in line, walked up to the woman, handed her my ticket info and my passport and was all ready to put my now bulging luggage on the belt when she looked at me and said, "Um, this isn't you." I looked at her holding Jess's passport and my chin hit the floor, bounced back up and hit the floor again. O to the M to the G.

My first response was to say, "It's my roommate, we must have switched, can't you just let me go?" And she reasonably responded that even if she let me leave with Jess's passport, Jess might not be so lucky with mine. I saw the sense in this and asked if I could call Jess at the hotel, but she didn't have a phone that could make outside calls so she directed me to the information desk. I ran with my bags to the information desk, woke Jess up and frantically begged her to take a taxi to the airport, and then decided to hedge my bets and get into the line where I would be able to switch to a later flight if I missed my original one. I got to the front of that line, explained my situation, and when the agent asked for my original boarding passes, I realized I had left them with the woman at the ticket window. Crap. I ran back there with my luggage, she saw me coming and flagged me down, gave me the tickets and wished me luck. I got back in the ticket exchange line and decided it was time to get my life in order and began organizing my piles. Connecting flight info - check, original boarding passes - check, Jess's passport - OH HOLY GOD.

It was not there. I checked and rechecked a hundred times and finally resigned myself to the fact that I had done the unthinkable and lost Jess's passport in Fiumicino airport. Probably by now some vagrant had it and was selling it for a hundred dollars in the parking lot, and Jess was going to murder me with my own passport and the judge was going to let her off because I deserved it. I ran up to the exchange window and asked the agent if I had left it there. Nope. I ran to the information desk and asked if I had left it there. Nope. I was on my way running back to the ticket window to ask the woman there if she had it when I was stopped in my tracks by a security guard who had been watching me run around with my enormous suitcase through the airport all morning. He asked in a conversational way, "What do you want?" I burst into tears and explained that I had lost my roommate's passport and I was certainly going to be killed and all I wanted to do was get on my plane and he held up a hand to stop me and said casually, "I found it."

WHAT TO THE WHAT. I said "YOU DID?!" and he made me put my luggage on a cart and follow him calmly to the security office where they did indeed have Jess's passport, but they wouldn't give it to me because I was not her. I ran back out into the airport lobby and practically crashed into Jess and her taxi driver (who had agreed to help look for me) who were just walking away from the information desk where the people there had basically told them, "Oh yea, a totally crazy american girl? She went that way." She handed me my passport and then I said as quickly as possible, "I don't have yours because I lost it," and then before she could hit me, "but the security guards found it!" And ran with her to the security office, and got her passport back, and somehow got on my plane and she went back to the hotel with her new best friend the taxi driver.

And I wish that was the end. Not only because it has taken me like an hour to write this, but because you can bet that by now I had sworn off flying, or travelling, or generally ever leaving my parent's house ever again. And naturally, all things conspired against me, and my flight from London to JFK was delayed and I ended up with just 45 minutes to make it off the plane, through customs, and onto my flight to BWI. I begged my way through the customs line until I met up with a pack of 15 or so other travelers who were all also trying to catch the BWI flight and we made a pact to hold the plane under pain of death until everyone had made it on. After screaming silently at the customs agent to HURRY IT UP MAN while he looked over my posters and toothpaste to make sure I was not hiding any terrorist paraphernalia in there I booked it to my flight gate. I have done a lot of running in JFK airport. My gate was of course, in the farthest terminal away ever, like it was not even just gate 32 onehundredmilesaway but gate 32 onehundredmilesaway C. While the speaker system intoned every few minutes that my flight was on its final boarding call I full out track star ran across football fields worth of moving sidewalks, and when I got to the terminal the attendants standing at gates 32A and B cheered me on while I sprinted to C. I dramatically gasped at the woman at gate 32C, "There's more of us! You have to hold the plane!" and she promised me she would do her best and gently herded me onto the flight. Sweating like a monster, I made it on the plane, and the one guy from the customs line who had made it there before me clapped for me, and then we continued to clap for each successive group to make it - including a poor five year old child who had to run like a champ along with her parents who had too much luggage to carry her. In the end everyone that had been a part of the customs line pact made it except two, and the flight attendant gave us water and turned up the AC level and I made it to Baltimore on time.

I laughed getting off the plane because now that it was all over my horrifying story was now a hilarious story and my family was going to think it was so funny, except they were not there. Hmm. Maybe they were waiting for me at the baggage claim? Nope. Hmm. Maybe they had forgotten that today was the day I was arriving home from a two week trip to Italy and I might possibly have just had the second most stressful day of my whole life? I finally scrounged up enough change to use a payphone (how antiquated!) and called my Mom's cell phone. She said, "Cindy? Where are you?" and I said, " BWI, where are you?" And she responded to tell me that she was also there, but obviously my arrival was much less interesting than the new Thurgood Marshall exhibit in the airport so my whole family was there instead. So I found them, and told them my ridiculous story, and they all laughed at me and said, "Oh Cindy" and now it has gone down in the annals of history as, "That time I went to Rome and almost didn't make it there or back."

And the end. And I'm going back in 5 days. And who cares if all hell breaks loose again, because BRING IT ON AIRPORTS, I'M A TOTAL PRO.

Photomania

2009-08-26T23:13:00.000-04:00

I have thousands upon thousands of photos. My 2009 New Year's resolution was to get my photos off of CDs and hard drives and into albums. Thousands and thousands of albums. As you can probably guess, this has not yet happened. But I have finally managed to get a few more photos out and into the public view with some new around the house kind of projects.

The first involved these super awesome vinyl sticker frames which go well with our black and red themed living room. The photos were selected for their inclusion of people who we love (and are often in our apartment) and ones that translated well into black and white. And yes, I love the Colosseum like a person. (and Marie the cat)

The second was inspired by this post from Apartment Therapy, and we picked photos that were fun and translated well into being stuffed into glass jars. We fortunately had a pretty large collection of glass jars on that shelf already, but we saved up a few more over a month or so to get a good variety.

And finally, the mishmosh of college era frames on my desk were in serious need of an upgrade, and when I scored the white frame at the Paper Source outlet and the blue tile frame from Target on major sale, I was off and running. The flowery looking frame was a cheapy one I already had that I just covered with a scrap of paper. New frame!

I am now doubly inspired to get all my photos in a place where people can see them. And by people I mean me. And friends I trick into coming over for dinner and "a movie". Hey did I ever tell you about the time I went to Outdoor Ed in 6th Grade? WANT TO SEE THE PICTURES? *locks door*

History!

2009-08-25T01:42:00.001-04:00

Fun new post: http://thetenmilessquare.blogspot.com/

Persnickity

2009-08-19T22:06:00.000-04:00

Have you ever read the Serenditpity book Persnickity? Anyone? It's about a dragon who is so obsessed with being neat and clean that he moves out of the house he shares with the other fun loving but very messy dragons and gets his own perfect cottage with perfect roses that he cuts and puts in perfect vases. But in the end he gets lonely, so he moves back in with the other dragons and sort of learns to live with it. I think when I was a kid it was supposed to be a lesson about living with my lovely but untidy siblings, but I always got to the part where he moves back and shook my head. Why Persnickity? Why? It was a perfect cottage! With perfect roses!

However, this past two week stint of living on my own while Jess and Will tour the countryside has been a harkening back to the lessons of Persnickity and this time I get it. Every night the sink was wiped down, the sofa slipcovers were adjusted, the pillows were put back into place, and everything was calm and quiet and perfect. Except for the LONELY. Marie the cat and I are on a whole new level of understanding after spending a fortnight with only each other to talk to in the evenings. So when Jess and Will returned tonight it was a CELEBRATION! And there are probably dishes in the sink, the pillows are helter skelter and the slipcover is inching its way up the back of the sofa, but I have company. And it is great.

As a welcome back J&W! project I made these very delicious cookies that are totally worth sharing:

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Ingredients:
2/3 cup chopped hazelnuts * 2 tablespoons sugar * 6 oz bittersweet chocolate finely chopped * 2 3/4 cups flour * 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder * 2 teaspoons baking powder * 3/4 teaspoon salt * 1 stick unsalted butter, softened * 1 1/2 cups brown sugar * 2 eggs * 1/4 cup milk * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract * 3/4 cup confectioners sugar

Recipe:

Toast hazelnuts in a shallow pan until pale golden. Let nuts cool and then pulse with granulated sugar in a food processor until finely chopped.

Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together butter and brown sugar in another bowl until creamy. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Melt semi-sweet chocolate in a bowl and then add to butter, sugar and egg mixture until well combined. Add milk and vanilla. Slowly add flour mixture, mixing well after each addition. Stir in nut mixture. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm.

Once dough is chilled preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. (or aluminum foil in the off chance you don't keep parchment paper in your kitchen at all times)

Roll chilled dough into 1-inch balls, then roll balls in a bowl of confectioners sugar, coating them generously.

Place completed balls on parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake, until cookies are puffed and cracked and edges feel dry (but centers are still slightly soft), 12 to 18 minutes total.

Eat with messy friends* and then clean up the mess later.

*Jess would kill me if I did not specify that truthfully, she is not messy in the least. She is just not as persnickity as I.

Does want

2009-08-19T00:28:00.000-04:00

GAH. I NEED THIS.
It is too busy for my already too busy room. (and would certainly clash with this.) It costs more money then I have to spend right now on things I don't actually need. But OH MAN do I ever want it. They should make it into paper so at least I could buy it and keep it in my closet and look at it. It also reminds me of this shirt which I apparently wear all the time.

And while we are on the topic of bedding, here's a link to an AT review of a very inspiring neighborhood bedding store. I like walking in to look, and touch, and imagine what it would be like to afford Kelly Wearstler duvet covers.

And while we are on the topic of things I want, look how CUTE.

And while we are on the topic of public toilets (oh wait, were we not?) This is pretty hilarious.

GAH.

Take note

2009-08-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

Back on track with the "things I made a while ago and never posted about", here are two sets of stationery I made for some departing Paper Source buddies.

Cute right?
Layouts were done in Photoshop and printed on Paper Source paper with my Epson printer, who is lovingly named Darth Vader because of his sleek shiny black shell and hunger for universal domination. The envelope liners are cut out of some of the massive quantities of scrapbook paper that live in my closet.

I actually love love love making stationery. Fonts! And colors! Such fun. I also am in love with tying things up in ribbon, so all together, this was a pretty exciting little project.

Because I don't spend enough time there already

2009-08-18T00:33:00.000-04:00

Georgetown, Georgetown read all about it!

From sordid past to shiny present - it's all there at thetenmilessquare!

But wait, there's more!

Read other entries and become well educated about your nation's Capitol!

Neato!

Low carbs, high protein

2009-08-15T14:41:00.000-04:00

So after tipping the vet scales at a hefty 17 pounds, Marie the cat is on a diet. She is coping well by substituting carbs for all my houseplants, my ankles, the corner of my laptop, the corner of the book I am reading, the paper on the floor, the paper in the trashcan, and the paper in my hands.

I am trying to turn her weight gain into an advantage for my biceps by trying to make her do this when she annoys me. So far we have only gotten as far as artistic forms of human arm biting and face smacking.

Things on the happy list

2009-08-12T21:51:00.000-04:00

This bottle opener was so proud of helping me open this bottle of soda. Happiest purchase ever.

I loved this when I saw it as a poster and literally freaked out when I discovered it in (far more Cindy budget friendly) greeting card form at Paper Source. Someday this will maybeprobablydefinitely inspire a whole wedding, but for now it just expresses my love for the man behind the words, Mr. George Gershwin.

Thinking about this pool instead of how humid it is outside. Also, killer staircase Frank Gehry.

The Tudors on Netflix on demand, and the availability of Wikipedia to allow me to relearn everything I forgot about the 16th century rulers of Europe. This entry also makes the list of "things currently ruining my ability to get anything done while at the apartment". (like writing blog entries)

Vacation pictures and hot tub quidditch. See below for instructions. I will be forming a league shortly, let me know if you have a hot tub.

Attempting to relearn Italian prima di vado a Italia in 23 giorni. (I had to look that up)

This new fabric flower trend. How-to's that will be attempted some time in the near future can be found here and here. Elise's pretty pile of completed ones here.

And... JESS IS ENGAGED! AND THE RETURN OF JESS AS JESS! She ruined it by writing under her own name on the 'Trip Of Our Lifetime' blog here. Ring photo here!

Now without further ado:

Hot tub Quidditch* - official rules and regulations

Necessary equipment:

1 hot tub, the bigger the better

1 empty water bottle with semi-clear cap

People who will not judge you for wanting to play hot tub quidditch

Ice packs (for the bruises)

Setting up the play:

Non judgemental people get into hot tub and go about normal hot tub business. One person - the Madam Hooch - loosens the cap of the empty water bottle so it is barely attached but not leaking. While other players - the seekerbeaters - are otherwise occupied, the Madam Hooch holds the bottle underwater and chooses a time at random to squeeze the bottle and explode the cap off. This creates a loud 'thoonk' sound that signals the start of the play.

Play:

Once the seekerbeaters hear the thoonk, they immediately begin searching for the difficult to find clear cap - the snitch - amongst the frothing hot tub waters. This is made much more difficult by the other seekerbeaters who are simultaneously searching for the cap and violently shoving their opponents out of the way. A slippery hot tub also adds to the level of difficulty. The play ends when one of the seekerbeaters manages to find the cap and yells in triumph. Everyone then assesses bruise damage and the Madam Hooch reattaches the cap to the bottle so that the play can be restarted. This continues until it is too late to stay in the hot tub and keep yelling because there are noise regulations in place.

*this game was invented by the Thompson family siblings and they get all credit and any profits that may result from future nationalization of the game and/or the institution of international tournaments.

The fruits of my labors

2009-07-28T01:16:00.000-04:00

Literally. hah!

There have actually been a million more since, but this little guy was the first tomato to ripen in my urban courtyard flower pot farming experiment. Luckily, despite being fertilized mainly by car exhaust and the next door neighbor's cigarette smoke, and being watered oh, every now and again when I remembered, they have not yet proved to be poisonous. And taste like tomatoes! If you have been following along here and here, you may have noticed that I prematurely predicted they they were actual tomatoes instead of cherry, but turns out that even if I am a bad farmer, it I can apparently still read vegetable labels.

Below is another beauty that took a long time to ripen. Like I promised roomate I'd do it in March kind of time to ripen. But I think all the long months of thinking about doing it must have refined my technique, because in my humble opinion, it came out pretty bomb.

The inspiration came from here, because roomate purchased those same white umbra flowers a while back from the ICA gift shop in Boston. However white flowers on white wall seemed pretty blah, so after MUCH deliberation as to proper shades of green and their "shinyness" levels, roomate settled on a paper she liked and I purchased 30 yards of it because it did not come in any smaller increments. (So as a side note, if anyone wants apple green fadeless paper...) I hung the paper, stained an empty frame from Michaels, and then went at it with the flowers.

Pretty awesome right?

Mid-Century Momdern

2009-07-22T02:58:00.000-04:00

So as some might have noticed, I haven't really adjusted to the "do things and blog about them" mindset yet. Instead I either do things and then run out of time to blog about them afterwards, or I blog about wanting to do things and then never find the time to do them. I suppose what I need is more time, but since I did not get picked to be Hermione (SAD) I do not have unlimited access to time turners and therefore have to make do with what I've got. Which is exactly 25 minutes til bedtime, so let's get crackin'.

Recently I have been very active in the "doing things" department, and that has left me with a backlog of blogs. This current project dates from about a month ago, when someone I know - let's just use a generic name and call her 'Mom' - turned 50. Since we were NOT allowed to have a surprise party and were NOT supposed to make a big flashy deal out of it, I decided to make something a little special and sentimental instead. I found a LIFE magazine from the week she was born, added her favorite childhood book, a box of Jujyfruits (which debuted in 1959), a CD of greatest hits from 1959-2009, and a photo album full of childhood pictures from her childhood and my own. (and my sister's and brother's who coincidentally, are in A LOT of my childhood pictures. The nerve.) I also tossed in a Macy's gift card for good measure. I packaged it all up with purple (very in this season) and used a lovely paper for the album and CD covers that reminded me of the wallpaper she used to have in her bedroom as a kid. I then named it "Mid-Century Momdern" and laughed and laughed at my clever pun. SO CLEVER.

Here is 'Mom's' cat Spooky helping me display the goods/plotting his attack on that ribbon.

The ability to make the (super easy) accordion album is one of my favorite skills learned from Paper Source - which is also where everything used to decorate the album (minus the photos) came from. The photos are also all copies because I think it is SACRILEGE to cut up original old pictures. Which is also why I accidentally left the envelope with the originals in a bag of old clothes that I dropped in a clothing drop box. OH WAIT I DID THAT BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT. Not to worry, I called the company the next morning and something in the hysterical tone in my voice must have alerted them to the fact that this was a desperate matter, and the photos were returned to us unharmed. Whew.

Even in spite of the photo drama, the present was a success and it warmed my heart to see 'Mom' enjoy some relics of her past and present. It was also terrifically fun for me to put together, I pretty much swooned over the LIFE magazine (look at that ad for an actual mid century modern home - ieee!), and the creation of the CD was practically a thesis in the history of mainstream pop music that my mom likes. For funsies, I added the full song list below. (No judgement on the Clay Aiken guys - 'Mom' really enjoys his music...)

Also, despite my love for the history of the built environment, I held my tongue and did not remind 'Mom' that she is now old enough to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. But she needn't worry, she still has so much charm and integrity that I would nominate her any day.

THREE CHEERS TO BEING MID-CENTURY MOMDERN!

1959-2009, A birthday mix for mom:

1959: I Need Your Love Tonight, Elvis Presley

1963: All My Loving, The Beatles

1965: I Got You Babe, Sonny and Cher

1967: Respect, Aretha Franklin

1969: Age of Aquarius, The Fifth Dimension

1971: Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel

1973: Crocodile Rock, Elton John

1975: Mandy, Barry Manilow

1977: Old School Yard, Cat Stevens

1979: I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor

1981: America, Neil Diamond

1984: Uptown Girl, Billy Joel

1986: The Greatest Love of All, Whitney Houston

1989: Smooth Criminal, Michael Jackson

1991: From a Distance, Bette Midler

1993: A Whole New World, Vanessa Williams and Luther Vandross

1995: Turn The Beat Around, Gloria Estefan

1997: My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion

1999: Man! I Feel Like A Woman, Shania Twain

2003: If I Was Invisible, Clay Aiken

2008: Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia Soundtrack

Harry Potter and the Reason I Have Been "Busy" All Month

2009-07-16T02:58:00.000-04:00

So the much anticipated midnight showing of HP6 (as we refer to it in the field) has come and gone. The movie will never be the book, but as far as Harry Potter movies go, I LOVED it. Oh Ron Weasely listening loyally to Harry during Quidditch tryouts! Oh Hermione feeling angsty about being madly, tortuously in love with Ron! Oh Harry mimicking giant spider pincers to Hagrid! Oh Jim Broadbent! Oh good acting Draco! Oh Neville in a uniform serving drinks at the Slug Club party! Oh dear, I want to see it again right away. And I did not meet my (semi-ridiculous) goal of re-reading all the books in the month before the movie, so my mania is extended for a little longer as I finish them all up.

But what now you ask, what can you possibly have to look forward to while you wait the unending year and a half for the next movie to come out?

Well I say, How about this.

HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS MOVIE WAS IN THE WORKS? Adaptation of a Tony award winning musical. Check. Flashy dance numbers from the director of Chicago. Check. Set in Fellini's Italy. Check. Daniel Day Lewis, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz AND Sophia Loren. Checkity check check.

OH man. This could be horrible and I will still love it on principle.

And in case you were wondering (because I was), 55 days until I am back in Rome sweet Rome. WAIT WHAT! THAT IS SO SOON. squeal!

Happy Fourth of July! (or fifth or sixth or seventh)

2009-07-07T00:22:00.000-04:00

Ahh, Americana. Fourth of July weekend was all about berries, barbeques, and Baltimore. And also Bohemian Rhapsody, because that was what the band performed during the fireworks finale. It would have been nice if they could have played this masterpiece of American culture, but Queen was sufficiently awesome. (and fits well into my alliteration).

The fourth of July was also a reminder that I have over 1600 pages of Harry Potter to clear in 10 days in order to make my self imposed sanction of completing books 1-6 in time for the new movie. I'll will resume talking to everyone on the 16th, although I cannot promise to begin talking about things that don't include Hogwarts until later/never.

also - ps. I just noticed that I am wearing the same shirt in these photos as in the torrential rainstorm photo. I swear I have other clothes. I just don't love them as much.

Filed under: things to remember when I am old

2009-06-29T00:07:00.000-04:00

The setting: National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, Washington DC. A hot and sultry summer Friday afternoon. The sounds of zydeco jazz float through the park, specifically a rendition of "I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book. Cindy and friends sit on a sheet in the grass eating hummus and brownies and drinking wine out of plastic margarita glasses while surrounded by some odd hundred other yuppies lounging in post-work attire. Jokes are made about the impending thunderstorm. Hah! Does anyone have an umbrella? Hmm. But the metro is so close...perhaps just a few more minutes of luxuriant summer laziness...

Cue green roiling thunderstorm clouds

Cindy and friends pack up the plastic margarita glasses and huddle under the sheet while walking to the exit as the rain begins.

Cue massive deluge.

300 sculpture garden jazz patrons: AHHHH!!! RUN FOR IT!!! EVERYONE TO THE METRO!!! AHHHH!!!

Everyone stops to wait at crosswalk for light to change.

Cue horizontal freezing rain and plowing wind.

Cindy: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Cue hail.

Cindy: HAHAHAHAHA! THIS IS A JOKE. WHERE ARE THE CAMERAS? THEY MUST BE FILMING US. HAHAHAHA!

Increase intensity of rain and size of hail. Add thunder.

Cindy: WAIT I CAN'T SEE THE RAIN IS MAKING MY CONTACTS FALL OUT.

More thunder. Louder.

300 sculpture garden jazz patrons: AHHHH!!! QUICK LEAP OVER THE GIANT STREET PUDDLE!! AHHH!!!

Cindy: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Final scene: Everyone makes it, sopping wet, to the metro and squelches onto various trains through the city. Cindy and Roomate emerge, dripping, from their home station 5 minutes later to discover sunshine.

Cindy: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

The end.

And for old times sake, pulled straight from the xanga, circa 2004, that's right everyone, the immortal tale of Roomate and Mamook.

Mamook, the Lady Killer. A Play in One Act.

by Cindy Thompson

THE SCENE.
Trevi fountain, late on a Friday night, romance is in the air.
Cindy and roomate sit on a railing at the piazza level, Alan scampers away to sit by himself at the fountain level. Cindy immediately takes advantage of Alan's absence and tries to be roomate's boyfriend. She fails almost immdiately as they are both very soon overtaken by the staggering MONHOOD OF THE MAMOOK. (typo intentional.)

CHARACTERS.
Mamook - dirty rose vendor by day, DON JUAN CASANOVA BY NIGHT
Roomate - Roomate
Cindy - gorgeous
Alan - hiding

SCENE 1.
Mamook (holds dingy rose out in gesture to suggest - you give me money i give you stanky rose): Rose?
Cindy and Roomate: No no no, grazie.
Mamook (LEEEEEEERRRR)
Cindy and Roomate (feel uncomfortable)
Mamook (LEEEEEEEERRR)
Cindy and Roomate: Ummmmm...
Roomate: Quanto costa?
Mamook: Due euro.
Cindy and Roomate: No no no, grazie.
Mamook (LEEEEEERRRR)
Mamook (leans foward and kisses Roomate on the lips)
Mamook (cackles hysterically. Looks very proud of himself.)
Cindy (cackles hysterically. Can't believe what just happened.)
Roomate: Uhh... Can I have the rose now?
Mamook (gives Roomate the rose. Pats her on the cheek.)
Mamook: Che bella!!!
Roomate: Uhh, grazie.
Cindy (cackles hysterically.)
Mamook: Che bella!!
Mamook: What is name?
Roomate: REDACTED.
Mamook: Ess! I am Mamook.
Cindy: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Mamook (makes strange noises of adoration in Roomate's general direction.)
Mamook: Do you have a boyfriend?
Roomate: Yes, he's down there.
Mamook: I don't believe you. Where is he?
Roomate: Oh he's somewhere down there. ALAN ALAN ALAN ALAN!!!
Alan (birds chirp)
Cindy and Roomate: ALAN ALAN ALAN ALAN!!!!
Alan (still hiding)
Roomate: He's here somewhere. Look, you can come meet him?
Mamook: Oh, no no, is ok. (Realizes that the end is near.)
Mamook (LEEEEEERRRR)
Mamook (LEEEEEEERRRR)
Cindy: So um, Roomate. As I was saying.
Roomate: Yeah. Uh.
Cindy: Ahem.
Roomate: Cough.
Mamook (LEEEEEERRRR)
Roomate: So thanks for the rose.
Mamook (More cackling.)
Roomate: Ok. Have a good night.
Mamook (Kisses Roomate on the cheek.)
Cindy: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Roomate (Recoils in horror.)
Mamook (Goes in for the kill.)
Roomate: Non piu! Non piu!
Mamook: One is not enough!
Cindy: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Roomate: NO NO, one is GOOD! GOOD NIGHT!
Mamook (Apologizes to Cindy for only having one rose, shakes her hand. Leaves.)
Roomate: Ahhhhhhhhh, what the hell?
Cindy: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

FIN

Tales of paper past and plants present

2009-06-14T16:35:00.000-04:00

Look!

The kids are all grown up. I can't wait for the tomatoes, which I originally thought were cherry, but now appear to be actual large size tomatoes. I'll still love them anyway.

On an unrelated note, this weekend I finally updated my little invitations collection album and thought I should share some of the recent additions. The first is the invitation from roomate's birthday brunch that I wrote about here and here. (Dear J, I am aware that the forbidden J word is all over these guys, but it looked ridiculous to blur it out. Deal with it.) What I did blur out was our address because I am not ready for internet land to know that yet. Anyway the party was fun and bright and I wanted the invites to feel that way too. I also loved the paper for the envelope liner because it looked a little 1980s neon to me. The yellow cards on the left are from the list of things that are 25.

The next two are graduation announcements I made, one for my sister, and one for someone who I do not know and definitely do not live with. I made these guys on the lovely lovely arturo paper I got for a steal at the Georgetown Paper Source outlet. It's really dreamy by paper nerd standards, although this photo doesn't do it justice.

And this is an urban dwelling tomato.

the end!

Remember how I went to Detroit?

2009-06-11T00:54:00.000-04:00

Though it seems like just yesterday, it was apparently more than a WHOLE MONTH ago that I went to Michigan to visit Jess Green and see her new house and new life in a new city. So I guess it's time to share some photos.

I flew with Brynn at a ridiculously early hour into Detroit with the benefit being that we had a whole day to spend perusing the city. Jess G. knew a lot about it having worked downtown for a time, and was an excellent tour guide. Her right hand man served as our diligent chauffeur. The picture mash up below shows some of the highlights, Detroit's Eastern market, the newly installed river walk carousel, the Wizard of Oz-esque GM building, the Spirit of Detroit (which apparently now looks like this), and some Art Deco madness. The building in the top left is Detroit's Michigan Central Station, which is sort of the sad poster child for the city's current situation. As a brief history lesson, Detroit boomed (obviously) with the start of the auto industry in the 20s, busted with the depression in the 30s, regained some ground when car production plants became war factories in the 40s, and then got back on their feet a bit in the 50s. Then all of a sudden, someone discovered suburbia and everyone who could afford it left the city. This naturally led to some class/race tensions and in the 60s there was some major burning and destruction riot action. Not even the SuperBowl has been able to save the city since, though it's not for lack of trying. But as auto company after auto company goes bust, things are looking a little hazy for the motor city. The train station, built in 1913 with all the elaborate detailing and intricate stonework the Beaux Arts had to offer (for one last plug I promise - it was built approximately the same time as Union Station...) stands a massive 18 stories tall, and is empty. And falling apart. and quite frankly, for all of it's historic value, is probably pretty dangerous and should be torn down. (even though they apparently filmed scenes from Transformers there. Thanks Wikipedia!) But it is just standing there. Amtrack stopped sending trains there in the 1980s and it has been vacant ever since, which just blows my mind. And the craziest thing is that it is not on the distant outskirts of the city, it is like 10 minutes driving distance from the decently populous and active city center. About as far away as Union Station is from the Washington monument. INSANE. Anyway preservationists have been after this one for a while, but it is in a bad state, and would cost a lot of millions to restore. And even if someone could manage to turn it into a fancy hotel or casino (apparently Detroit's new thing) all of the building between it and the city center are also in various states of abandonment and desrepair. AND JUST STANDING THERE. In any other major city those buildings would be gone before the preservationists could say, BUT THE INTEGRITY!, but in Detroit they have been just sitting around for ages, slowly decaying, waiting for someone to figure out what to do with them. It was, in all truth, a fascinating urban study. Yes, I just said that, and yes I geeked out about it the whole time we were driving.

Anyway things are not all so bad. People are really trying to get things moving, but the current economy is making it tricky. So we'll wait and see. In the meantime, there are always the genius creative types who take their lemons (a whole block of abandoned houses) and turn them into lemonade (The Heidelburg project - see awesome photos below). Also Detroit is at a severe disadvantage of looking crummier by comparison to it's swankypants neighbor city, Grosse Point, original luxury home destination of the wealthy auto barons and later all of those with money who moved out of Detroit. We went out there to oogle the mansions - serious mansions - and to visit the home and grounds of Edsel Ford (son of Henry) and his wife Eleanor. (see the fancier house photo below) It was a lovely way to finish our Detroit day, even if my roomy apartment looked small by comparison to Edsel's daughter's playhousemansion.

We then drove back to Ann Arbor and Brynn and I got our first glimpse of Jess and Jon's new house, which is adorable, and bright, and happy, and has very limited furniture. But as they are doing pretty much everything themselves, we'll cut them some slack. They also have the most fantastic bathroom off the main entry that was tiled by the previous owner to look like a Mondrian painting. We spent the night out with some of their friends and then Brynn and I crashed hard when we returned to the house at 3am. The next day we ate brunch in Ann Arbor and then wandered around the city a bit. It was charming, a similar feel to Princeton, but with more arty things. I regret not taking more pictures while we were out, but the day's adventures included a visit to an antique book store that had library card cabinets full of postcards from the 1920s, a trip to Hollanders which sold paper, home furninshings, AND was giving away free cake (IN LOVE), and then a run through of local landmark Zingerman's deli, where I got some very delicious homemade marshmallows. We then went to a fancy grocery store because it was fun, then a real grocery store because we could afford it, and then headed over to a friend's house for an evening BBQ. Again, I sadly have pictures of none of these things, but they were all fabtab.

In the end a fun time had by all, and thanks to J&J for being wonderfully gracious hosts! I'll be back for sure.

Preservated.

2009-06-03T23:53:00.000-04:00

I've been finding a lot of historic preservation related (I just started typing preservated and I think that should be a new word) links on the interblags recently and thought I should share:

A walk through history with Tersh Boasberg - informative and written by just the nicest guy ever. Roomate can back me up on this one. We both kind of want to adopt him as our grandpa.

An excellent article from Architectural Record about preservation, it's history, current challenges, and why you should be a building hugger.

An interesting and amusing history of a quirky DC building. Also, if you are bored on Saturday and want to take part in the Dupont-Kalorama Museum Weekend referenced at the end of the article, I will be helping out at the Woodrow Wilson house from 1:15-4:45pm. Come visit!

And from some totally unrelated parts of the internet:
Another awesome thing to add to my list of things that were born in 1984
I am in love with this concept

and HAHAHA

Ever wanted to learn about the history of Union Station?

2009-05-28T01:33:00.000-04:00

Well now you can!

http://thetenmilessquare.blogspot.com/2009/05/all-aboard.html

And how!

As always, DC fun facts and history abound at thetenmilessquare. Read it or be a little stupider because you didn't.

Stu stu studio.

2009-05-24T20:21:00.001-04:00

As semi-official architecture reunion weekend comes to a close, I am happy to say that I can still hang out with that gang til 3am three nights in a row and not ever get tired of them. After all, we had a lot of practice in college - only this time there were a lot less drafting supplies and a lot more hot dogs.

Good times. I expect plenty of horribly embarrassing photos to show up on facebook in the next week or so. And in honor of studio reunion, here are the two most important architecture related links on the internet at the moment:

Should it have an elevator? How many floors?

ARCHITECTURE LEGOS WHAAAAT

Bad/badly bruised blogger

2009-05-17T23:06:00.000-04:00

Halfway through May already!

Things have been pretty redonk around here, and despite my lack of posting, I have still been managing to pull 2am bedtimes on a pretty consistent basis. Seriously no idea how. Just sneaks up on you.

Anyway, here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to since planting the pots.

Weekended it in Michigan with the long lost Jess G. Took in the sights and culinary delights of Detroit and Ann Arbor. Fought with Brynn about the Bay Bridge. Won by virtue of being born in Maryland.

Ushered "The Civil War - the musical" at Ford's Theater mostly out of curiosity about how the Civil War can be translated into a musical. (not well) Walked home in a nighttime thunderstorm and remembered why warm weather is so great. And H&M stores that sell umbrellas. And dry pajama pants.

Walked to work the next day and remembered why warm weather is so HORRIBLE. (sticky. blech.) Then suffered a whole week of cold rainy weather and retracted my earlier statement. (at least until the sticky comes back)

Celebrated Mother's Day, my Dad's birthday, and the introduction of several new J.D.'s into the bright shiny world.

Ate fried chicken, waffles, and collard greens, went to a speakeasy, and vowed to spend more time on U Street in the future.

Bombshell zoo morning, bombshell feeding time afternoon. Feasted on $3.00 sangria and hummus and reveled in the fact that there was literally nothing better to be doing.

Fell down the stairs in the middle of the night while holding a rubber mallet. Loudest fall ever.

Enjoyed the spoils of several law school graduation parties, (Read: ate A LOT) and realized that no one has better friends then me. Seriously. Some day I will write a book about it and people will make movies out of us, because come on, we are a best seller/blockbuster deal just waiting to happen. Not everyone falls down the stairs and thunderously loses control of the rubber mallet and handful of sharpies they were holding with intent to turn said mallet into a fake gavel so all her friends could sign it in honor of their most recent juris doctor bombshell. For cereal.

For cereal.

Detroit/Ann Arbor wrap up (with photos!) coming soon(ish).

Procrastination.

2009-05-01T22:30:00.000-04:00

I'm supposed to be packing for a weekend trip to Detroit, but it would be much more awesome if my bags would just decide for me what I should wear and fill themselves. I'm going to keep hoping for that eventuality while I listen to the My Fair Lady soundtrack and blog.

In loverly news:

GREEN!

I really love my apartment and ridiculous city existence, but one thing it is lacking is an actual garden. We do have a courtyard which provides lovely living room views, but the only piece of outside that actually belongs to me is a tiny triangle of cracking concrete. Roommate and I did have a little wire table with a glass top out there when we first moved in, but then someone stole the table (and, somewhat inexplicably, left the glass) so we were a little anxious to put anything else out there for a while. Last summer I had finally had it, so after scoring some lovely planters from Crate and Barrel I ran out and filled them with happy green goodness. They seriously exploded until pretty much December, and I've been looking forward to refilling them once the weather started looking up.

Last weekend it was a million degrees, but I braved the premature summer heat to visit, not one, but TWO local garden centers, because such is my devotion to tending my tiny pieces of store bought earth. I headed to newcomer and close neighbor Old City Green for the vegetables, and old friend Garden District for the flowers. Both outdoor shops are great places to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon, and I'm so thankful to Old City Green for moving into a sketchy abandoned lot and turning it into something great.

Of course, having been running late since I woke up, I ended up not being able to plant the pots until 12:30am when I returned home from the rest of the day's adventures. Since the triangle porch also lacks a light source, I did the dirty deed in my kitchen, where Marie the cat tried desperately to eat as much of everything as she could before my yells and swats subdued her to just laying in a pile of dirt and then vengefully rolling around on the clean carpet.

Oh cat.

And there was distant music...

2009-04-26T21:22:00.000-04:00

Ragtime!! Ragtimmee!! Ragtimee!

Been listening to this soundtrack since I saw the musical at the Kennedy Center last week. Musicals + my favorite period in history + great cast = excellent Thursday night. And it turns out that searching for musical clips on YouTube was way more time consuming than I originally thought....

Oh Boy!

and

Oh boy oh boy!

Oh boy do I wish I was Sutton Foster. Mostly/entirely because she got to do this.

Oh well, sucks to be me.

Sharing is caring.

2009-04-16T22:55:00.000-04:00

After an embarrasingly long hiatus, I finally posted another entry over at thetenmilessquare. Go for the cute picture of Bo-bama I added, stay for the tons of incredibly witty and informative posts Dana and Ian have been producing while I procrastinated.

Other things that are worth sharing this week:

From Arch Daily, this incredible home (talk about making use of your space) and a hotel for those wishing to live out their "Lost" fantasies without having to give up sheets and indoor plumbing.
This rubber stamp stationary set idea found here. Ingenious...and further proof that all you really need to have good design is to have good text.
This is more proof of the above. And a really good wedding present for me when I throw my Gershwin inspired wedding that I have not been planning for some undetermined point in the distant future.
Kelly Kapoor of The Office has this hilarious blog where she writes about pretty things she wants. Also, I really thought I was going to hate this whole Michael and Pam in a different office thing, but they won me over tonight with the cheese puffs.
A pretty thing I want. But unless I find a million dollars I will probably end up making some variation on this.
Really feeling inspired by this pretty thing, although I originally thought the image was an abstracted church window and balustrade and not the curve of the Eiffel Tower (which it is supposed to be). Anyway, with two graduation announcements and a graduation party invite in my future, abstracted buildings paired with cheery fonts are making an appearance somewhere.
OMG. This warms my heart.
And finally, a funny picture of my cat.

Buon weekend!

Blossoms and Brunch

2009-04-06T23:56:00.000-04:00

Spring has officially made it to DC, and roomate and I celebrated it this weekend with a brunch for her 25th birthday. We decorated with springy balloons and flowers, drank mimosas and bloody marys, and ate pancakes, scrambled eggs, potatoes, fruit salad, scones, muffins, sausages, and four pounds of bacon. Yes, for those who attended, you cleared us out of four pounds of bacon. It was a wonderful morning.

As part of the decor I made a list of 25 things that are 25, and was suprised to learn that 1984 was apparently the best year of all time. For those who missed it, here is the complete list:

1. Roomate

2. Not Cindy (at least until September)

3. Heathcliff the cat

4. Air Jordan Basketball shoes

5. The Cabbage Patch Kids

6. Prince Harry (although, technically he's still 24 until September also)

7. The Terminator

8. Phillip Johnson's AT&T building

9. "Like a Virgin"

10. Muppet Babies

11. Ghostbusters

12. The city of Seaside, Florida

13. Optimus Prime (and the rest of the Transformers)

14. The Space Shuttle Discovery

15. 16 Candles

16. Brunei

17. The Care Bears

18. The Macintosh Computer (crazy!)

19. Snorks

20. "99 Luftballons"

21. Torvill and Dean's Gold Medal

22. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of facebook

23. Amadeus

24. The Karate Kid

25. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"

Pretty Great!

Rainbow cake!

2009-03-29T22:57:00.000-04:00

This was pretty awesome.

I found the recipe here, and made it secretly while roommate was out of the apartment so when she sliced into it she would have no idea what brilliance was inside. It probably was not the most delicious cake I've ever made (I didn't use the diet cake in the recipe, just a regular white cake version) but it was definitely the most bodacious.

That's right bodacious.

BODACIOUS CRUMBS!

RAAAAH! Happy Birthday -es-. May all your wildest dreams come true.

It's business time.

2009-03-24T03:32:00.000-04:00

For the past two (three?) years roommate and I have celebrated her birthday in high fashion with a champagne birthday brunch. We are the classiest people we know. Mostly, it is an excuse for us to have a fun spring event just when it is starting to get warm, and mostly for me, it is an excuse to get obsessive about party planning and invite making. So naturally, I was excited to come across this post on hostessblog.com (yes I read a blog called hostessblog) which links you to a site to easily create and share party inspiration boards.

An obsessive half hour later, ta daa:

That's the idea more or less. Lots of flowers, balloons (roommate did you know that?) breakfast food, and sad oranges. And happy people! Now this week is cracking down on actually doing invitations, and making menus, and finding a place in DC to buy helium filled balloons on the cheap. In other words, it's business time.

And speaking of business time, there is a million percent chance I am going to be purchasing this shirt.

I know what you're trying to say baby.

Well.

2009-03-13T21:09:00.000-04:00

So by 11pm Thursday night I had eaten a completely delicious dinner with friends, took care of some disaster mitigation following the loss of an old and beloved family pet, and finally made contact with the long lost roomate on her week and a half long trek through the jungle to cure AIDS (more or less). I was pretty tired and ready to call it a night. This, however, is fairly unusual given my genetic predisposition towards what I like to call 'night owl syndrome'. I say genetic because even my grandmother occasionally still stays up until three in the morning, and it is a lot more convenient to yell, "curse you DNA!" than, "curse you ill informed decision to stay up until 2am!" while dragging myself from under the covers.

Then somehow, this happened:

That's right, at 11:30pm I got a second wind and moved basically every piece of furniture in my room. We won't mention how many hours later I finally hit the pillow. But I am happy with the new set up, sore back and all. It seems when I revamped the decor the other day, I was really just hitting the tip of the iceberg of some sort of deep seeded dissatisfaction with the space. The bookshelf next to the desk was too cluttered and two obviously different styles of Ikea fake wood. The dresser without the pictures above it was too small on the big wall. The chair was too far away from the rest of the room. Now the bookshelf can be it's own giant display on the big wall, the dresser on it's side creates a kind of special nook for the bed (not to mention easier access to clothes from the shower) and the chair is cozier next to the desk and closer to the window. For now, the poster above the chair is temporary, I still have some big plans for that space. I like the fan and the mask where they are next to the bookshelf but I think a big mirror would be happier in that place. And I have been talking about getting new lighting since before Christmas.

Ah for the luxury of unlimited budgets and no 8am alarm clocks. If only.

Really feeling the 're's.

2009-03-12T01:17:00.000-04:00

Hooray for new houseplants!

The one on the left is a survivor of the winter, the one on the right is his lush new friend. In my repotting frenzy I also ended up embarking on a little impromptu room redecoration - something about the warm weather, it felt like time for a renewal. Repot, redecorate, reduce, reuse, recycle. Basically. I reduced the amount of things on the walls, and reused a bunch of old things in new locations. I guess in this instance recycle is the same as reuse, but it sounded good in that last sentence so it is staying. I suppose to some extent I was also inspired by Apartment Therapy's upcoming spring cure, which is always fun to follow.

Anyway here is the bathroom hutch, bed and bathroom corner, dresser, and desk before:

And here they are after:

I think I like it? There are still tweaks, I need better frames for the Cannes poster and the Savannah print, and I need to get newer more updated frames for the little collection of photos on the desk. Also obviously, now there is a big space above the chair where the Cannes poster used to be - I have big plans for that space... I'm sure it will only take me forever and a day to get it all done.

Greentastic.

2009-03-08T20:40:00.000-04:00

It snowed last Monday. Like the biggest snow we've had all winter. And now it is FANTASTIC outside. Definitely tshirt, flip flop and open window weather. Definitely time to fill my life with some more green. Every spring my apartment emerges with a few fewer houseplants than it started with, mostly due to Marie the cat's annual campaign to eat everything with leaves. Well really, everything in sight, but the plants seem to have the most trouble recovering from the toothy onslaught. But I persevere in the hopes that some day she will stop being the worst behaved cat of all time. Eventually it will be warm enough to refill the sad stumpy planters on the back patio, but since we're supposed to be back in the 30s next week, I decided to stick with some indoor plant improvements for the weekend. A quick trip to home depot in Columbia and I am armed and ready to give Marie enough greenery to eat until next spring. I hope she is grateful. Photos will follow shortly, as I am still in Columbia waiting to exploit my mom's grill for a dinner of hamburgers and coleslaw.

For other DC denizens who are getting the green bug, here's a link to my favorite dc garden center - garden district. The happy tulips are from Giant. Go forth and get green!

News items.

2009-03-03T02:48:00.000-05:00

Two news items to share:

First - fear not people who read my last rambling entry! I have a new creative outlet for my musings on architectural history, www.thetenmilessquare.blogspot.com. Started by two friends of mine with quick wit and excellent writing skills, they plan to make everyone's lives a little better by sharing their huge font of DC historical knowledge with the world. It's a really entertaining read for DCites and visitors alike. I'll moonlight with some entries on local historic sites when the mood strikes.

and Second - FINALLY. They announced a date for the release of the 6th Harry Potter movie. Note to all, I am busy at 12am the 17th of July. I think 135 days is enough to reread all 7 books, right? CANNOT WAIT.

p.s. so I just realized (after watching that preview on fullscreen (ok fine twice on fullscreen)) that these news items are slightly related in that Ian, one of the DC bloggers, looks A LOT like Harry Potter. Anyway, sorry Ian - it was too coincidental not to point out...

I think this turned into an emotional disaster anyway.

2009-02-25T03:32:00.000-05:00

So I just saw He's Just Not That Into You and we're not going to talk about it. Not because it was bad, but because now I can't stop thinking and overthinking and rethinking the overthinking, so instead I am watching Star Wars and blogging. I like to think Liz Lemon would be proud. Anyway, I did not intend to write about emotional disasters, I intended to write about some loves of mine that are perfectly proportioned and will always love me back. Buildings. Mmmm. Talk about love at first sight. And I KNOW they will never call me. They can't. They don't have fingers.

So I never want to be an architect. This is not because I dislike architects, but because I'm fairly certain would make a bad one. I went to school with a lot of good ones, and experience tells me I would probably only ever reach the level of "super mediocre", and why choose mediocrity when I think I could really be a fabtastic preservationist someday. But I want to explain myself a little because I think most people, even architects, misunderstand the preservationist mentality. Get ready for an amazing architectural dorkfest.

I have a great respect for architecture new and old; I think there is no better way to understand patterns of culture and human history better than to look at the progression of buildings. They are still standing there, tangible, walk-around-able, visible pieces of our history. And history is so important. Don't even get me started. I think obviously we should keep making room and building new and forward thinking spaces so that we have something to be remembered by, (take heed people in charge of the stimulus money! I have architect friends who need to pay electrical bills...) but that being said, there is a great deal of consideration that should to go into a decision to banish a historic building from existence.

Generally, people get this. And few are willing to part with things that are particularly beautiful or have major significance. But sometimes, there are tough sells. Modernism of the 50s and 60s, coming up on the ripe age of 50 and therefore becoming technically "historic", is particularly tough. As an example, most people see this and think - "lovely! how charming. And it looks like that place I grew up. Now I want to eat ice cream cones and be happy." But when they see this they think - "blech! All made of concrete. Who cares. Tear it down and turn it into a Wal-Mart so I can get whole boxes of ice cream."

Ah! But what if I told you that the Victorian style fell out of vogue almost as quickly as it came on, and in the early 1900s people were tearing out all their lavish dressings and replacing them with more staid and classical designs. What if they had torn them all down? What would we use to relate to that time period? How would we know what turn of the century movie sets were supposed to look like? Why would we ever want to eat ice cream? So that's what preservation is about. Giving buildings a voice so they don't get lost. Like the Lorax. But I speak for Corbusier instead of the trees.

Really, like 10 paragraphs ago, I started with a point to this. I recently came across this article about mid century buildings in Italy that are starting to show their age and need to be preserved in the technical sense. For buildings made of brick, paint and plaster, this is a situation with an easy answer. Repoint, replaster, repaint. For buildings made of glass, concrete and steel, the problem is harder. But the buildings are no less worthy of attention. They represent a period and a design sensibility that we will probably want to remember in another 50 years. People built opulent Victorian buildings because they were experiencing a time of excess and new industry brought about by a relatively long period of peacetime, and we can really fully understand (and touch, and see and breathe) this through the architecture that is left. The buildings of the 50s were stark and new to express new technologies and new ways to think about space and place and personal needs in a world that had been racked by two World Wars. That's an important period of time to be able to remember and grasp. Buildings from that era can literally put all that right into your hand. No grasping!

Now I know, not all buildings ever built are good enough examples of a period to be worthy of tying yourself to pilotis. In the Rome case, I've actually been to both places and have a little bit of perspective. The Rinascente building is a great example of the style and pretty rare for a city that bucks change so much it skipped the Gothic pretty much entirely and waited until Roman Classical styles had a renaissance period. (In the Renaissance, ahhh) The Corviale is trickier, not because it is not particularly expressive, but because that method of housing and urban reform didn't work, and the place is now pretty much a slum. It is hard to convince people of the value of saving and renovating a place that no one wants to look at, much less live. But then again, it worked for warehouse districts pretty much everywhere in the U.S. so who knows. Perhaps some fascinating multi-use rehab that still allows for the prominence of the exterior massing is in order. And then some architects would have some jobs. Win-win.

So if you've made it here - Congrats! You have learned never to mention buildings or history or Italy in front of me again. Anyway, as a parting shot:

"Some months ago, reading the Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean, one delicious passage halted my reading. 'Her distant past is preserved,' wrote Dean, 'Moments that occurred...years ago reappear, vivid, plump, and perfumed.' This was such a multisensory way of thinking about memories, the past, and even history. I got to pondering how the passage sums up why the tangible manifestations of history are so essential. Preserving artifacts and architecture, old buildings and boats, musical instruments and machinery is so important because they make history vivid and plump."

-Lynn Scarlett, Deputy Secretary of the Interior

And the Oscar goes to...

2009-02-24T02:56:00.000-05:00

Hugh Jackman, for excellence in singing, dancing and overall charmingness. Oh sorry, I meant to say "and the Oscar for my heart goes to". I have a lot of things to discuss this week (maybe more than two posts?) but I'll start with the Academy Awards since they are fresh on my mind. I think I pretty much watched the Oscar's this year because I had previously seen Australia and have had a gigantic crush on Hugh Jackman ever since. Also, even if you think it is silly and self indulgent, who can tear themselves away from all the pageantry? And also Tina Fey and Steve Martin. And Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto herding their troops of little slumdog millionaire children. I mean come on. All in all a fun evening of mooning over the tv. And uh, crying when Kate Winslet's dad whistled for her to find him. Whatever, I'm a girl. Get over it.

But really for me, one of the evening's highlights was the stage set - mostly (entirely) because it was designed this year by an architect and I am super biased. References to the Campidoglio are going to get me every time. Here's a great article from the NY Times that gives some perspective on his design philosophy for the show, if you are into that sort of thing. Also I didn't realize that the architect, David Rockwell, was also the architect of the theater. Wonder how he got the Oscar gig... Anyway I thought it was smart, and it did look very classic kind of 1940s bandstand, and I thought the way sets moved to reveal other sets was very snazzy. If I was in architecture school, I think I might even give it a "sexy".

Here too is a fun video from ABC's broadcast that talks about the production design and uses a lot of Benny Goodman. I think 1940s Oscar's is where it's at. And for those who missed it, here is a totally hilarious recap of the awards and a clip of Hugh Jackman's first number. Swoon.

The internet is full of wonder.

2009-02-18T22:05:00.000-05:00

You know you are in a bad spot when you google the phrase “tongue burn from candy”, but such is the ridiculousness of my life. Roomate (who has chosen to forgo her actual name for political reasons) reminded me that this is the third time this has happened to me since the first tragic incident involving sour warheads in fourth grade, and apparently I never learn. The most recent aggressor was the leftover red hots from my valentines, and it took only about 10 of them (consumed all at once) to turn my tongue into flaming sandpaper – or at least that’s just what it feels like when I try to eat anything. This is particularly horrible because I really like eating. (confession: I have still not stopped eating the cookies that have the red hots in them because they are really good.) So, in desperation, I found myself googling “tongue burn from candy” and was relieved to see that not only were there solutions, (gargle salt water – which surprisingly works) but there were also accounts of people just as stupid as me who could not avoid the candy they knew would hurt them. The internet is just full of wonder.

Here are some other wondrous things worth sharing:

Beautiful plates from a favorite online store that remind me I someday want to do this.

Top ten songs about architecture plus all the good ones in the comments

“It’s called a T-square!”

Reason number one I wish I had HBO

And this video, which will make you appreciate all kinds of technology.

Better late than never.

2009-02-16T20:35:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some things owl always love:

*Spending Friday nights with the bombies

*12 courses of dessert

*Sleeping til 11:30 on a Monday

*DC restaurant week lunches

*Lazy afternoons with movies and blogs

*Marie meowing in her sleep

*Brand shiny new plane tickets to ROME

*ROME

*and spontaneous made up cookies

Because I had extra red hots cookies:

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup crushed red hots

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

strawberry jelly

Combine the first six ingredients and mix well. Add the cold butter in small pieces and blend together into small crumbs. Add the egg and the milk and blend until smooth. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour. Roll out refrigerated dough and cut cookies in fun shapes; bake on an un-greased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes at 375. Sandwich together with strawberry jelly and put on your favorite little cake stand. Take pictures because you ate too many while making them and are now too full to eat anymore.

Burning love.

2009-02-11T04:04:00.000-05:00

Well, be-still my melting heart. Just in time for Valentine's Day, here is a completely adorable news story about two koalas who were rescued from the recent Australian wildfires and fell in love at the animal rescue center. Apparently they can't stop giving each other hugs (!!) and according to someone from the animal rescue, part of the reason they are so much in love is because, "they have a muchness with each other". Australia I know you are having a bad week, but you are tonight's 'high five that made my day!' winner.

That adorable koala story also made me think of this adorable koala story from CuteOverload. Aside from the koala sitting in the bucket of water like it's his jacuzzi tub and he wants his martini now, I think the thing that gets me the most about this is that in Australia, koalas just walk around outside. Like squirrels. They just come up on your porch and climb in your buckets of water.

Winning Australia. You are totally winning.

Let's get this done.

2009-02-09T04:27:00.000-05:00

I read a lot of blogs, so I get a lot of ideas. I also have a side gig as a Paper Source girl, and this does not help. I write down 50% of these ideas in an adorable little "ideas" notebook (purchased from Paper Source), and then I accomplish probably 10% of those. It's one day at a time over here.

Still every now and again I have a MAJOR accomplishment. I would put these next two projects in that file.

First, in the fall of 2007 we got some awesome paper at the PS and I bought pretty much all of it immediately. I have the master bedroom in our apartment and it has a big wall with two closet doors and a lot of white. Since we're renting and painting is not an option, I had tried posters and other odd decor with little success. But this paper - it was the answer. It sat in a roll in the bottom of my closet for a year and a half, until finally I found a few free days to cut it to size and stick it up with super tacky tape. It will never come off and I will probably be punished when we move out, but the cat would have eaten it off otherwise (no joke) so it had to be pretty permanent. So four days and as many movies later, here is the finished result:

I wish I had a before, but the after is pretty great in my opinion. Also notice how well it matches my lovely blue IKEA Hemnes table...

Second, as a person who spends 6-12 hours a week in a store full of paper, I inevitably end up with a lot of it in my possession. So what do I do with it? Find excuses to have parties and make invitations - win win situation for all. I usually make an extra invite to keep for myself, and after making two successful wedding invitations for friends, I decided they all needed a better home then just a pile on my bookshelf. Again, I bought the album ages ago and even got as far as stuffing the invites inside the front cover to keep the cat from eating them (no joke) but that was about it. Until last week, when in a motivational frenzy, I pulled this off:

Christmas 2007

Stacy and John, September 2008

Brunch, March 2008

So really those two projects only go in the MAJOR PROJECTS file because it took me so long to get around to doing them, not because they were particularly hard or time consuming once I got started. So I guess that would make this last little project sort of medium, because I've only had the corkboards for about 4 months.

I love seeing pictures of people's inspiration boards on the internet because they are all so, well, inspirational, and I've been hankering for my own for some time now. I really liked the look and feel of these ones, and they cost me like $4.00 from Michaels. Sweet. Anyway, I know things are kind of sparse right now, but soon I'll be adding these fun ideas from my mecca blog, Apartment Therapy.

Because text is beautiful

Because living in an old building with such supreme architectural details as those windows and populating the rooms with modern decor is my DREAM

Because the empty frame with the 3-d flowers in the last photo is going to be my next MAJOR project

In tonight's episode of random news...

2009-02-05T03:43:00.000-05:00

I've been in a very "let's get this done!" mood since the New Year (hello blog!) and so I have grand plans for this weekend to use my new soapbox to showcase some of my recent "projects". Obviously it was not happening tonight since it's Thursday and I had to clean the apartment and watch a full hour of TV. I did also manage to squeeze in a quick trip to Bar Pilar for a friend's birthday, so I am feeling rather accomplished at the moment. Oh, and The Office and 30 Rock definitely delivered, so good night all around.

In other DC news, I made my virgin voyage to Red Velvet cupcakery (although that is the LAST time I will call it a cupcakery, because seriously) last evening, and I thought it was pretty good. Truth be told I am not picky about my desserts. My favorite ones are the free ones, but for $3.25 a pop these cupcakes were worth it. Excellent icing to cupcake ratio, which is very important. Anyway it is 15 mins from my apartment and attached to a TangySweet, so I'll be back. And will probably gain 90 pounds when it is warm enough to walk over there without my eyeballs freezing.

In other world news, I read an article today about how Italy has made all these recent upgrades to their historic sites. While I am interested/easily suckered into seeing the new elevator in the Vittorio Emmanuele, which for the record, I LIKE, I am appalled at the charges to get into the Forum. Has the economy sunk so low? Is the innocence of my study abroad youth to be so tarnished? A historically democratic stage! (minus slaves and non Romans!) Sad news. Good news is that they have banned the sale of pigeon food in St. Mark's Square in Venice, so now no one will get diseases. Jess and I have been pioneers on this front for a while, see the friendly PSA we made on our last trip about three years ago. Jess is speaking - I am doing a horrible job holding the camera because I am laughing hysterically. I have no idea who the people are...

And just because, here's this.

Ciao ciao!

Tuesday.

2009-02-04T04:27:00.000-05:00

First off, thanks buddies for all the nice comments - you made me feel very encouraged...and very pressured to write something exciting tonight in exchange for your diligence. Unfortunately today was a pretty standard Tuesday - work, Paper Source, quesadillas. So I thought maybe I'd catch up on all that blogging I was supposed to be doing starting in January.

Here goes:

01.01.09 - Happy New Year! Caught a plane to Boston to visit the Columbia contingent there, was greeted with a snowball down the neck. 01.02 - Visited some of my favorite pretty little places in Cambridge and saw the Mapparium, which apparently only Jess knows about. Even people who are from Boston have never heard of it. But it was cool. No pictures are allowed inside the 3 story stained glass globe of the Mapparium itself, so I had to console myself with this globe lamp in the lobby. 01.03 - Went to the ICA and saw an amazing exhibit by Tara Donovan, check her out. 01.04 - Flew home to Columbia and boxed up Marie Antoinette the cat and her new favorite toy to take back to DC. (she was home for Christmas) Interestingly, she stopped her "just kill me now" car meowing when we passed by a well lit landmark on the drive back and started

purring - smartest cat ever. 01.09 - go to a friend's art show in Baltimore because I only hang with cool kids. 01.10 - go to a game night party in DC for the same reason as before. Learn what Catchphrase is and wonder why I haven't played it every day of my life. 01.11 - DC starts ramping up for inauguration. Temperature starts ramping down. 01.17 - go to Columbia to cash in on a free new cell phone deal, return to DC to discover our apartment's heat unit is dead. Bummer. 01.19 - Lisa comes to visit for inauguration, I spend 20 minutes warning her about how the electric heater might burn the apartment down, but it's 50 degrees INSIDE so I am desperate. 01.20 - Partake in history.

Watch Barack Obama become the 44th President and am astonished at how friendly everyone in the enormous crowd is. Change is here and we can all feel it. What we cannot feel are our toes. (Because it is cold). 01.21 - still no heat but I make the best of it and complete a year long labor of love. Well I bought the paper a year ago, but it really only took me four days to put it up once I got started. 01.23 - Heater arrives in our apartment, but sits tantalizingly in our living room until an electrician can come on Monday. 01.24 - Escape the 50 degree living room to go to my big fat italian family reunion. Lots of food, lots of people with the same name, lots of happiness, and lots of Frank Sinatra. 01.27 - HEAT makes a return to the apartment. There is much rejoicing. 01. 28 - Attend a punch party to keep up my hipster street cred. Am amazed at how much the punch tastes like pineapple and the pineapples in the punch taste like liquor. Fun (and tasty) nonetheless 02.01 - Watch the end of the Super Bowl and learn that punching cute animals in the face is HILARIOUS. But not as funny as Angela throwing a cat through the ceiling on the special Sunday Office. 02.02 - Start blog. 02.03 - Tuesday.

So there we are. Regularly scheduled posting will begin as soon as something more interesting then Tuesday happens.

hello blog.

2009-02-03T02:58:00.000-05:00

Gulp. *dives in head first*

With much encouragement from friends who PROMISED they'd read, here I go. I've been toying with the idea of a blog for a long time because 1. I think I'm funny, 2. other people have told me I tell good stories and I let it go to my head, and 3. Sometimes cool things happen in my life and I feel like I should share. With the world. I've been planning on starting this since last New Year's, and have actually had claim to this site since this New Year's, but for the last month I've been sitting around just looking at how pretty my header is. (isn't it!) There have been lots of ideas, I tried for a while to come up with a mission statement - like "I like classical music, you should listen to these songs", or "I make invitations and have fancy parties, here are my ideas", or even "I live in Washington DC and wish I could do all these fun activities, here they are", but although I am adequately passionate about all those things, I am also just pretty much only adequate at talking about them. I did some extensive research while procrastinating and was astonished by how much information there is about those topics on the internet already, particularly written by people who have doctorate degrees in music, or craftiness, or are just generally cooler then me. Also I couldn't decide which one I was most interested in. So instead I just resigned myself to writing about all of them as they happened, like, "oh today I walked past this building and it made me think of Gershwin" or "so I'm having a party this weekend and this is what I did for it" or "my friends and I are so awesome and we went to this cool event yesterday". So pretty much that is my mission statement. "Hello, here is my life." (hence the title)

Anyway, having conquered that minor obstacle I then sat around for another few weeks thinking about how it was going to be so stupid that I just wrote this stuff and nobody would read it, because honestly, people who like music or invitations or DC are going to regularly read blogs about that them, but I feel there is a very limited number of people who are interested in reading about my everyday life. Like probably just my mom. (thanks mom!) So after much hemming and hawing, I decided, what the hey - this is my blog, and when I am 50 I will be so glad that I wrote about everything that I did when I was 25. So a year and a month after I promised myself I would do this, I did it. whew. The goal is to catalog as much of this year - 24 going on 25 - as possible, since goodness knows it's already been pretty exciting. In one month, I've gone on a Boston mini-break vacation, stood in a crowd of 2 million to watch Barack Obama become President, finished a major wall papering project, and eased myself into a life with a real honest to goodness full time job and only one part time job.

So stay tuned. And read this - because even if I pretend it is all for me, I'm really much more entertaining when I have an audience :)