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- My Parents Were Awesome is a collection of photos of parents… when they were young and hip.
- The bf scored a second interview! I’m so proud of him!
- A lesson to be learned – if you see an awesome deal on something you love, grab it immediately. I saw the most perfect pair of round toe, recessed platform, cone heeled, black leather Nine West pumps for a steal a week ago. I don’t know why I didn’t just get them but, sometimes I sabotage myself like that. Anyhow, I couldn’t get them out of my head so I went back to the store today and of course, they were all gone. Every last one of them. So, I bought two other pairs of shoes instead! Ha!
Nibbles appreciates a high heel. I want to pair these with black rolled up trousers, and pretty much everything else. These have a hidden platform which I’m really not a fan of but, this platform isn’t exceptionally high and I love the seam going down the middle of the toe. I needed a pair of simple round toe black pumps since my last pair has been re-heeled 3 times and they’ve stretched so much I can’t keep them on.
Nom nom nom! This is why I can’t have nice things. These are embossed snake with black metallic flat studs, three buckles at the ankle and a back zip. I have no idea what I’m going to wear these with. Maybe those black satin harem pants. Size medium was way too big and I sent them back for an exchange. I think I’m going to have to cut the waist off and re-hem the drawstring pocket to lift them up a bit and keep them low slung. No biggie.
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Exploding Dog Pictures‘ is a collection of quirky, subversive, and often sad little drawings based on submitted titles. Matted signed prints are now available here. They would make a cute gift for someone.
- Going to Target with the bf and him asking me if they carry Yankee Candles… that he had been reading someone’s blog and had heard about this certain candle… so cute! (it’s my favorite)
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- There are two things looming over my head that I need to learn all about. These two posts will help me (and you!) get through it all. First there’s Google Wave and most importantly, there’s Farmville on Facebook. I saw my friend’s farm last week and being an avid SimCity player back in the day, I must do this! Time to get to studying!
- I’ve always been a city girl at heart but now I’m starting to question living in such close proximity to strangers. I love my apartment but I’m beginning to hate my neighbors and I wonder if we moved at the end of the lease, if it would just be the same type of issues with different people in some other city apartment. There’s the certifiably insane girl behind us who screamed bloody murder for an hour one day and got hauled off by an ambulance, after the police beat the hell out of our door thinking it was us. Then, a week later she beat on our kitchen wall because we were talking normally at 10pm on a Friday night. She also complains to the landlord about everything. Thankfully, he knows she’s nuts. There’s the chronic coughing man in the building next door, the hysterical dog barking mania throughout the day, and the loud parties (with a loud fight at 4am when a girl refused to leave). We can barely use the shared washer and dryer because the new tenants have made the “all utilities included” deal a public service to their friends. Then there’s the people below us. I think it’s 4 guys who manage to stink up our apartment on a regular basis with the stench of onions, they play electric guitar at all hours of the night, sound like they’re moving heavy furniture, slam doors and stomp up and down their hallway every single night… who just immaturely mocked me out their kitchen window a few nights ago for hearing me in the sack with my bf because we accidentally left the livingroom window open and well… I’m kinda loud sometimes. A simple note would’ve sufficed. Like, “hey, just so you know… we can hear you.” I would’ve been fine with that and sincerely apologized. I guess I was living in denial, hoping they didn’t hear as much as they did. I’m over it and will be keeping my trap shut until we’re out.
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- on a neutral note – I am pretty passionate about my distaste for the unethical blatant designer ripoffs out there. If you know better, you should do better and pass up on supporting the theft of intellectual property. I was recently asked what the difference is between that and the diy ideas I suggest for recreating designs conceived by others for the home and being fashionable. The difference is that I am not suggesting you mass produce something similar to someone else’s design, slap your name on it as if it was your own idea, and sell it to the public. I think it’s fun to try your hand at new things, to learn new skills and how to utilize unfamiliar materials and tools. Having an inspiration point to guide you is a good way to start. A lot of home design out there is just as ridiculously expensive as high fashion but some of these things appear incredibly simple to make. If cobbling shoes was easier (and something I think I would even be remotely good at) I would’ve been making my own a long time ago and I would proudly say I made them myself with so-and-so as my inspiration! As soon as you make a profit off of someone else’s idea, you’re treading ethical thin ice. Hope I cleared that up.
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- Comments! I love them! Leave one and introduce yourself! When you comment, I get to see YOUR blog if you have one, and this my friends, is how great relationships begin! I just recently received a comment from Sarah whose blog yes and yes, I had never seen before and well… it’s awesome… and I’m mentioning it here! So there you go!
- The Botany of Desire was on PBS this week and I loved it. It’s a documentary based on the book by Michael Pollan. It talks about how 4 plants that have satisfied humans (apples, potatoes, tulips and marijuana) have thrived and expanded across the world because of our efforts. If you’re into plants, into history, into genetics, into evolution, into the world, check it out. You can watch it online.
- This is both a plus and a minus – I’m not dressing up in a costume this Halloween. It’s a plus because the planning, expense, and usually the sewing can get to be a little overwhelming. It’s a minus because costumes really bring out the nut in me and they’re soooo much fun! Here are some pics from Halloweens past -
This was a zentai tiger suit I ordered off of eBay in 2006. I cut the face out of it but was constantly having to readjust. This costume got a lot of milage at a lot of super fun parties. The nose was a pain but I loved the annonymity. It was skin tight and some chick came up and told me I was “really brave” for wearing it. Compliment? I hope so.
In 2007, I repurposed an old bridesmaid dress and made the Bjork swan dress. Such a pain to sew! Miles of various types of white tulle strips and at the last minute I magically found a yard of white feather ribbon edging for the bodice part. That really made it. It was great going to parties and everyone running up to you knowing who you were.
Last year, I finally made a super cuddly hamster costume after talking about it for forever. It was beyond comfortable and I loved wearing sneakers all night. I also made a blinding pink bunny suit for a friend out of the same pattern at the last minute one evening. We took over the town. Everyone wanted to hug me and I wanted to hug them back!
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I have had this first pair of Givenchy shoes from the Spring 2010RTW collection bookmarked for almost a month but hadn’t had the time to look at the rest of the collection. The clothing (and those god-awful hats) didn’t do a thing for me but holy cow these wedges! So ideal. Have I told you before how much I love a wedge? Like a million times! I wish affordable amazing wedges were more readily available!
via style.com
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- Grilled Romaine lettuce just seems so wrong to me! I hear it’s very good though.
- After getting my laptop back from being repaired, my external hard drive (that I backed everything up on) won’t work. (Something about partitions and all this other computer garble that I don’t plan on teaching myself.) Well, I tried to hook it up to my folks’ desktop and it too is saying that it needs to be reformatted – meaning I will lose everything. So, I downloaded a freeware version of a data recovery program and everything was working well. The items on my external were being recognized, I could see it all in front of me, then the error reports started popping up (something got corrupted which explains why it wouldn’t work on the desktop either) and just when I was ready to transfer all the items I had painstakingly hand clicked on… the “freeware” program directed me to a website to pay $50 to complete the transfer. What a flippin crock!
- Twinings African Rooibos red tea tastes like bug spray. It seriously tastes like Raid!
- Zombieland was a huge waste of time. The previews were incredibly misleading. There was hardly any zombie killing. Who goes to a zombie movie not wanting to see excessive zombie violence? The female characters (I hate to say it) were unnecessary - very cunning at the beginning, emo in the middle, and pathetically stupid and needing a man’s rescue at the end. The awkward emo guy was obviously cast as some poor excuse for a Michael Cera wannbe. Bill Murray’s bloated self-indulgent cameo was terrible. Weak. So weak.
why i love fall
- All things pumpkin! I don’t like coffee shops and make my own at home. A little package of pumpkin coffee is a nice treat!
- Same goes for pumpkin ale, although I can never remember the one I like the best!
- The added mystery to life when the sun starts going to bed earlier.
- costumes and the way people really let go when they’re wearing one.
- Long afternoon walks with leaves crunching under your feet and the sun setting the trees ablaze overhead.
(Hollywood Cemetery pic via *wanderlust*)
- Squirrels are going nuts for nuts this time of year
- The scents of Fall filling your home
- Kids are back in school and out of everyone’s hair.
- You can scare the hell out of kids and get away with it.
- Indian food feels right.
- Soft German gingerbread cookies lightly iced and dipped in dark chocolate.
- Halloween sized candy feels less guilty.
- Martha Stewart’s Halloween issue is the only one worth looking at. Amazing.
- I only wear hats with bear ears.
- HOODIES!
- Bear ear hoodies!
- Cold weather food like hearty soups and stews and bread puddings.
- boots
- over the knee socks!
- caramel apples!
- date nut bread and cream cheese
- all the insects are dying away!
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- For once, I have read a beauty post that speaks to my own skin issues. I am so excited to try all of these products out. I never thought that the expectations I have for products could actually be met and this makes me feel like it’s possible.
- Love this bentwood walnut Case Study Alpine Series bed from Modernica.
- Fake polar bear rug FTW! (from etsy shop fringecollection – it’s sold)
- This tattoo cracks me up! (via)
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- Pantone everything! Pantone mugs, Pantone chairs, buttons, Rubiks cubes, bags… I just don’t find these items attractive. Okay, so you have something that has a Pantone color on it and its reference. This is a design cop out. Does this suddenly make you a designer, or give you street cred among the design crowd. No. Maybe it’s your favorite color but seriously, Pantone (and Moleskine), you are wearing me thin.
- We didn’t get to go to the state fair. Boo.
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- Domo is at 7-11 for Fall. Adorable. I want a slurpee!
- I love all things cute and creepy and this plate from etsy shop Dark Vomit is wonderful!
- Another etsy find, I would wear the hell out of this “peacock cocktail ring” from Alisa Miller. Metalsmith.
- Love laser cutting and this “hive bench” by Arktura is powder coated steel and uses mathematical algorithms to create the intricate patterns. The same designer, Chris Kabatsi also did this “vortex table” made from carbon fiber. Science + design =wow
- Fanciful episodes of Jim Henson’s The Storyteller (series 1) have been making me happy. I only wish there were more.
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- High cholesterol. It runs in my family and they have blessed me with it as well. Two weeks ago, I went for my annual physical and received a newish blood test that doesn’t assess the typical cholesterol numbers but instead looks for the carriers of the bad cholesterol, the carriers that take it to your arteries and clogs them up. This is a measurement of LDL-P and mine were off the charts! Other than being terrified , I have had to seriously reassess everything that I put in my body. It looks like this self-proclaimed “meataterian” is going to have to gear more towards veganism.
- Everyone losing their mind over Alexander McQueen’s Paris S2010RTW runway show. Yes, it was accessible for anyone to view via webcast but does this warrant all the praise and hype? The prints on the dresses were absolutely stunning but the shapes were nothing to write home about and, I mean… seriously… the shoes?! Are you kidding me? I am not feeling this. (pics via)
these look like elephants to me
Alien vs. Predator anyone?
- My laptop has been sent off to get repaired which means I will have limited access to work on posts, check my reader, or tweet for a while. While I kinda welcome the break, I don’t want to lose momentum or miss anything fun!
- Football. Sick of hearing about it.
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(If the f-word is NSFW, then don’t scroll down until you get home!)
- I’m not feeling very serious today! This is a good thing!
- I want to make dumplings soon. These two posts should get anyone through the process easily. Here and here. They are a bit labor intensive but soooo rewarding!
- Speaking of food, on a fashion-centric blog, I really liked this post from Fashion is Spinach. It’s a swell revelation to have… a nice little reality check.
- I love this video (and the song)! It’s not the official video but instead, a very creative fan made it!
- The Keyboard Cat t-shirt made it on Threadless - of course! I can’t decide whether to get it or not… after all my oohs and ahhs, I’m really agonizing over it! damnit! Where would I wear it? I think the answer is EVERYWHERE!
- My fave screamo (they call themselves metalcore) band ever, Underoath is coming back to the Norva on November 30th. This will be my 5th time seeing them. I’m 30 years old and I’m going to be screaming with a sea of 16 year old kids and I. Can’t. Wait! There is no shame in my game. Here’s a pic from the last time I saw them… and my post about that night! For the first time, I won’t be going by myself. The bf has NO idea what he’s getting himself into. He owes me. I took him to see Atmosphere for his b-day!
- This Kakuzai notepad is adorable! At $25 and with 1,200 sheets, it would make a great x-mas gift! OMG why am I already thinking about Christmas!?!?! I’ve been stalking this notepad waiting for some update on where to buy it in the US, since the original source was in Japanese and someone finally let everyone know where to get one here! (via)
- It was interesting to take a quick peek into the Marimekko textile factory.
- These labels are a must. Thanks to Thursday Night Smackdown… one of my fave food blogs.
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- This is one sad pup. He’s all over the place with his sadness, looking for his lost love!
- I really want a new phone. My Helio Ocean just isn’t cutting it for my online demands. I need to see how much longer I have with my contract and iPhone here we come! I just wish they had different providers!
(Her blog is awesome!)
- My mom’s b-day is coming up and she’s always wanted a big fuzzy (fake) sheep in the house. (I wonder where I get it from.) Anyhow, I found one and it’s a stool. Only it’s $1,200. Maybe next time mom.
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- Oh holy crap look at this house! (photos via)
no, I am not kidding
- Oh holy crap look at Luxirare’s latest post on bento boxes! I’m maintaining a list of all of her food posts here.
- Oh holy crap look at this Donna Karan bustier for $2,495!!! Beautiful construction!
- I’ve been hard at work at a somewhat personal post for the one-year anniversary of this blog. I’m pretty excited!
- I will also soon be posting pics of the project I undertook to get something on my living room walls (if I don’t die first). I can’t believe I signed myself up for this but I have to see it through to the end. I always overextend myself on goals. Lets just say about a gazillion little dots are involved. Stay tuned!
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- I have had an AOL email address since 1995. I KNOW! “LaraRan” is what everyone called me since I was a kid since no one could pronounce my last name. It’s pretty much been my online identity. I think it’s time to move on over to gmail.
- Christian Siriano’s shoes for Payless suck hard. How much do you wanna bet the Spring 2010 line won’t look anything like this?
- I want to thank I Hate Your Fashion for telling it like it is about drop-crotch pants.
- Air hunger. Have you heard of this? It’s a phenomena that affects tons of people and there is no real relief available except for trying to relax and giving it time. It happened to me on occasion when I was a kid and has started up again, out of the blue, same with a lot of other people. Basically, you feel like you can’t get a deep breath and it lasts for days and can last for months (please god no!). Anyhow, you feel like you’re suffocating, that no breath you take is satisfying and the only thing that gives you relief is to build up to a giant yawn and then it starts all over again. It can ruin your entire day, making you feel anxious (when you really weren’t feeling any anxiety until this crap started, although it gets associated with anxiety all the time). You feel like you could slide into a panic attack if it doesn’t ease up. This has been going on for 3 days now and is driving me insane. Today has been a bit better and forcing myself to breath through my nose and realize I am getting enough oxygen has helped a bit. So has xanax.
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- NY Fashion Week is going on and I’m not there. I think I will try to get my press credentials for next year. Apparently it’s not that difficult. OMG… how awesome would that be!? Also, I am amazed at all the whining I have seen on Twitter about how much the lady bloggers’ feet hurt. You guys seriously wore heels when you would be on your feet all day long at standing room only shows and it’s been raining? Ridiculous! Okay, I’ll quit scolding but c’mon ladies! Why are we always trying to impress one another to the point of agony?
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- Having a cold and being taken care of by someone who loves me. Seriously nice.
- I want a Brent Comber alder wood table.
- And these chubby little chairs! (When the website doesn’t have a price listed, you know you’re in trouble.)
- Add Learn Something Every Day to your RSS. It’s adorable.
- I soooo wish I could go to Sonny Vandevelde’s opening in NY this month!
- How lovely is Samantha Robinson’s porcelain work?
- Camille of childhood flames has the most perfectly ideal wardrobe. Look at this simplistic masterpiece!
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- Summer colds. Oh my god they are the worst!
- 100 things your kids may never know about.
- Not seeing the boy all weekend. Not looking forward to this one bit.
- A nice visual about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
- This cold has destroyed my skin. It’s dry and tight and just yucky. No amount of treatment is making it better. My skin guru friend M.J. has recommended AmLactin. I think I need to check this stuff out. She would know. Her skin is perfect.
- To grow my bangs out or not? I’m getting a little tired of maintaining the blunt straight line. Maybe something wispy and side swept?
- Maymont Park is now charging $3 admission to their nature center and the otters were asleep!
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- Now tell me, who wouldn’t want a taxidermy armadillo!?
(photo via)
- Katie Sokoler of Color me Katie is a super positive photographer and street artist. Her blog is neat.
- Love love love this 3D printed nylon “Cell Cycle” cuff bracelet from Nervous System. Is it flexible or rigid?
- This home is perfection.
- the way the sun bleaches all your peach fuzz after being out all day
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- InStyle Magazine, I am done with you. Your stylists are boring and it’s all feeling very ooooold. The September issue yielded nothing more for me than an Elizabeth and James twig bracelet and a drapey Derek Lam dress. Chain strap purses and tweeds are in for Fall? No way! Why is everyone playing it safe these days? Somewhere in internet land, another blogger was noting how happy she was that the styles haven’t really changed much from last year… that she could continue to shop her closet and stay current. With everyone scared over the economy, I suppose that could be a relief. I just wouldn’t mind seeing a little more creativity in the styling department. That is all.
- Bizarre rash… on my butt.
- Those days when you dribble coffee on yourself 3 times before you’ve even finished your first cup.
- Really not feeling the new Fall 2009 Marimekko fabric line. I’ve been looking for something grand to stretch onto a frame and hang up but I always end up leaning towards this 2003 design by Maija Louekari called “Hetkiä/Moments” (in any of the color variations). Sooo $$$ for a piece of fabric!
I’d also love this in the bedroom, from their Spring 2008 line. It’s called “Pelimanni” designed by Iiro A. Ahokas.
- Depressing stuff - This article about FIJI bottled water was an interesting read. Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, FLOW is a documentary about the bottled water industry that I really enjoyed.
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- Old dark rinse jeans that have faded perfectly over time look waaaay better than pre-whiskered jeans.
- Discovering an awesome blog and reading every entry from the beginning. I did this with Dooce a few months ago and have finally caught up. I don’t have children but a lot of my friends do and I can totally relate to her humor. She is a blogging god who has managed to support her family quite well by sharing her life with others.
- 10 tips for a classy home that I found to be pretty right on.
- I finally found that damned box of nic nacs I packed away years and years ago. I was beginning to think I had imagined having these things. It was in the back of a huge disaster of a storage closet at my folks’ house that I cleaned out today in search of beach chairs (yes… the beach is nigh). So glad I rediscovered some of my favorite things!
- When I packed all these things up, I put strange little things in any container to surprise myself later. I found a red glitter heart, a carved stone pendant, a hand full of glue-on gems and all sorts of other treasures! Fun!
- I desperately need this Wusthof knife sharpener! Only $20!
- 1000 Awesome Things is awesome.
- Going tubing this weekend! Can not wait to float down a lovely stretch of the James River for a few hours!
- Havaianas. They are the most comfortable flip flops I have ever worn, are virtually indestructible (I have worn the same pair of brown ones for 3 summers now), and they don’t make your feet stinky! :) You should be able to find them on sale at various online stores.
- I’ve always wanted to try a callus remover on my rough summer feet but, being unsure if it would work or not, I was reluctant to spend $15 on a big bottle of the professional poison. I found a small trial size of this stuff on sale for $3 and asked the sales lady if it really works. Boy does it! I took my usual bath and while my heels were soft and I was still in the tub, I applied a thin layer straight from the bottle onto my heels. (A little goes a long way.) I was told to not get it on nice healthy skin but I accidentally did get a bit on my finger. After washing it off immediately, my finger felt strange. So yeah, this stuff if pretty intense. I left it on for about 2 minutes (you can leave it on for up to 5) and then scrubbed it off with a rough Japanese washcloth (these things are amazing and can be found at most any Asian market). The roughness was completely gone. What the Ped Egg couldn’t accomplish, this caustic chemical did. I highly recommend it if you have rough summer heels… just use it with care!
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- I really really really miss my other cat Nibbles and I want her to come home with me. I don’t know if I could handle the extra fur, and Ringo’s special diet would make feeding them separately a real pain.
- Should I go to Best Friends Day? Should I not go to Best Friends Day? This has been rolling around in my head for a while now. I went last year with some wearisome folk, which kind of tainted my view of the whole debaucherous spectacle that is BFD at Hadad’s. I didn’t have as fun of a time as I had anticipated. I did run into a few old and new friends which was nice, and I would run into them again this year but I just can’t see myself putting myself (or the boy) through it again. I won’t go into a rant of why the Richmond scene just isn’t doing it for me anymore. It just isn’t. I have lived in Richmond my entire life, and was an involved part of it all for over half of it (the heyday of the scene IMHO). I will always hold my old friends close to my heart, but I don’t want to be surrounded by dirty drunk punk 21 year olds anymore. Maybe I’m getting too old for this.
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