Oh, so it's summer now?

Here's what I've been up to:

1. Not blogging.


2. Not taking enough pictures with my awesome new (geez, not that new anymore camera).


3. Obsessively playing Words with Friends



4. Freaking out over Erwin Olaf's photography.

5. Planning a mini wedding (in my head, it's a lot like a mini pony--cuter and easier to cram everything into a hatchback, but still capable of making a serious mess).


Actually, the whole wedding thing has been going really well so far (knock on wood). Both Marc and I have been blessed with super mellow families that are pretty much up for whatever and just want everyone to have a nice time. I know, right? So far, I have the dinner booked (hell-o, open bar!), my dress, invites, flowers picked out, a giant pile of vintage tablecloths and a cabinet full of tin cans and glass jars (I can expand on all that if anyone cares). It's--dare I say it--been lots of fun to plan. And my consolation is that if it's a giant mess and nothing goes right, who's going to say anything about that? It's not like your best friends and family are going to come to your wedding and tell you to your face that it was sort of lame and the cheescake was gross. But yeah, I hope everyone has fun...

More posting soon! Cross my heart!

What have y'all been doing?

Engaged in some marrymaking

It's super weird for me to be as writer's-blocked as I have been for the last few months. I thought at first I'd just go with it and let myself have some time to ramp up to writing new posts and keeping in touch. That doesn't seem to be working at all, since this corner of the web is about as dusty and neglected as the top of my fridge.

So I think I'm going to have to put myself on a schedule and post something up here every day...at least until I get my blogging discipline back.

It's not that there's nothing happening. Tons, actually:

1. I turned--gulp--30. I guess since I put this out there on the Internet, there's no lying about my age option anymore.
2. My reward from Marc for making it to my fourth decade was a sweet-ass Nikon SLR camera. I guess this means I'll have to challenge myself to take nice pictures and post them here. I guess this also means the old Minolta is staying at the suburban Steak N' Shake indefinitely.
3. Oh yeah...Marc and I also got engaged. On my birthday on the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier! It was wonderful and fun and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world these days.

...so I suppose that means I could torture you loyal readers who still check back from time to time and turn this into an OMFGWEDDING! blog. But I promise not to...well, not too much anyway.

Seriously, though. Our plan is to have a lil' civil service ceremony at the Chicago Cultural Center ($10, yo!), followed by a nice cocktail party reception for some family and friends. Not janky, but not break-the-bank expensive, either. If anyone has any tips or suggestions, give them to me. I'm begging! I've called about 10 restaurants and go through my spiel about doing this without picking up a bridal magazine or attending a wedding expo, and just when I think the event coordinator gets it, he or she starts trying to give me vendor information for lighting technicians, aisle decorators and trolley rental services.

It's really starting to freak me out. So much so that, in the face of wrangling so many vendors and writing a big old stack of checks, committing my life to one special person seems like a piece of (tiered, overpriced) cake.

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society

Hello, yous!

I have been so absent and so inert when it comes to this blog (and wearing pants that don't have an elastic waist).

It's really interesting what having a job that requires you to make your own schedule does to you. On one hand, it's incredibly awesome. I can grab my computer the second I wake up and basically get going. No need (on some days) for pesky things like breakfast and the brushing of the teeth that comes after that. On the other hand, with so much freedom comes the danger of slacking on everything except work. Such as, ahem, blogging.

Now that I've sort of started to settle into things, I've found new ways to coach myself to live a more "normal" existence. It doesn't matter that my motivators are things like: "I need to get dressed so the UPS guy doesn't see me in these red pajama pants three days in a row." and "I need to go out and run some errands so I have stories to tell Marc when he comes home that aren't an hour-by-hour rundown of the cats' napping schedules." Hence, the blogging again.

Plus, I've started going on appointments and meeting my clients, which is so very fun. I basically get to visit people in their awesome shops or studios, learn what they're all about and find ways to help them.

So anyway, thanks everyone for being patient with me and my inertia. Would you believe I still haven't gone to Steak N' Shake to fetch my camera? But hey, at least I'm all showered up today.

OH, and I almost forgot about the title of this grovel-y post! So, Marc was out of town this weekend, and I'm a total baby about sleeping in an empty apartment. It was bad enough that I'd just finished re-reading World War Z last week. I was up every hour listening for creaks and moan. BUT, I was wise enough to opt not to watch a movie about zombie Nazis. Instead I got my spooks from running through old episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Do you know most of that shit is up on Youtube? Oh, nostalgia!

No one to blame but laziness

Isn't it sad that it takes me two weeks to recover from being out of town for a week?

Rest assured, I have so much more to say, but I'm just digging out. Topics include painting my front door, beer, old things and my newly discovered love for swan planters. Sorry this post is the blog equivalent of a sitcom clip show. I know it's super weak sauce.

Talk to you guys soon!

Lucky 10

Erin at the fabulous Design Crisis tagged me to round up ten things that make me happy. Right now, I'm wrapping up things at my current job all while learning the ropes for my new gig,which involves a big gear switch and two trade shows in the next week. So things have been more than a little hectic for the past two weeks or so. Adding this round up as just one more task to my gigantico to-do list almost sent me over the edge...until I started doing it.

Seriously, so much drama is making me focus on all the irritating things such as the fact that if I don't do laundry tonight, my swimwear is going to have to pull double duty as undergarments. Which in turn makes me think about cellulite remedies, which drives me to the kitchen in search of chocolate. Good God, I am such a Cathy cartoon these days.

Anywhoodle, taking stock of what makes me sigh and smile is much more therapeutic than dwelling on everything that makes my shoulders hunch up and my left eye twitch. Thanks, Erin. I needed this!

Ok, here goes. I made a point to not make this all about food. It was tough.

10. Indian food. With lots of Naan in particular. I'm craving it like whoa.


9. Grenada tiles.



Love love love. I would possibly tile my bed and my sofa in some of these patterns. And I think a lot of the appeal of these is their old-worldliness. Mostly, they make me want to take a trip to Greece or Turkey.

8. Design Vagabond. Great design blog from an industrial designer who manages to find awesome stuff that's not reported on other sites ad nauseum.


Here's an example post on wonderful Crudo ceramics.

7. Writers who are so hilarious they make me laugh so hard I forget to be jealous. I'm thinking of Tula from Whorange and April Winchell at Regretsy. Those two are always good for a pick-me-up.

6. Speaking of bloggers, I am madly in love with this Patrick Townsend Orbit Light (in white) and am determined to get with it and hang it somewhere fabulous in my house.


I never knew how badly I wanted it in my life before I saw it on DC, so thanks for that, ladies. And thanks for making me cheer myself up today.

This is so fun I'm going to stretch it into two posts--top 5 to come tomorrow.

Even though I'm only halfway done, I'm tagging Melina at Owl and Peacock. And I'm expecting at lest one cheese-related entry.

Whoops

I forgot to blog. Holidays + houseguests + general life shake-ups have taken up big chunks of time.

But I'm here, keepin' on keepin' on/truckin'/it real.

And I promise to be back with actual interesting-ish content tomorrow.

In the meantime, why don't you tell us all a joke?

Blocked

Blergh. Every day this week has been the same. If you could only see how many drafts and half-baked ideas I have saved in my folder...

Nothing's really gelling like Magellan for me, post-wise.

Kind of like that almost-there room up there. If I were to walk into it, the first thing I'd do is heave those ugly chairs out the window. Then I'd smile.

Help! What do you champions do when you hit a brick wall creatively?

Modern* art makes me want to rock out

Ready Art Brut?










* or, you know, contemporary art or just some large abstract painting. whatever.

For all you baby Calders out there

Buddy, cheer up!

Dry those tears and stop gnashing your teeth. Hey. Come on, pulling your hair out is only going to leave an unsightly bald patch.

With all this posting I'm doing, it's like I'm not even gone, right?

What's that? You're so lonely without me you already made 16 bubble chandeliers for your family and closest friends?

Ok, ok. How about another art project?

Maybe an abstract mobile?

Could be pretty cool, huh? This nice blog has posted all of the directions from a 1954 issue of Popular Science.

It's ok. Go ahead. It's not a strange blog if I say so.

When I get home, I can't wait to find the prettiest one you made on my doorstep.

Wired up and connected to the world.

I just found out we're probably getting cable in our new place.

It was nice knowing you, blog! (not that there's any possible way I could blog LESS these days. Sheesh.)