yes, please!

Shopping with Amy Atlas? Sign me up!
For now, virtural shopping works too:


from NYTimes.com

  I love me a cute cake plate... here is the link to the rest of Amy's picks!

Monday Mantra

found here

did you visit wilderness downtown?

http://saddondraper.tumblr.com/

andy & andie & andes

Tonight Andy (husband) and I went for an impromptu ride in our temporary convertible.  I even changed out of my couch pants (because I don't do yoga) just for the occasion.

Later, I caught the end of Pretty in Pink, hence the other Andie. Since it was live I caught a Subaru commercial that I thought featured a Zooey Deschanel song, but it was actually Erika Davies - kind of a modern Billie Holiday.



I'm sure you can safely assume what happened to the Andes candies as I watched Pretty in Pink.  So much for eating healthier, but at least there's no junk food left in the house.

Arcade Fire

Andy introduced me to the Arcade Fire back in the day, so imagine how cool I felt when I heard about their "interactive HTML5 music experience, 'The Wilderness Downtown' " before he did.

 http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

Enter the address of your childhood home and the faceless character in the music video pops up in various windows across your monitor running through your neighborhood.  It's all very fancy with the way they integrated Google street view into the "experience."

So I ran the address of my childhood home first - I was so impressed.

I brought my laptop to my sick husband and gushed about the coolness of the Arcade Fire's HTML5 thingy and offered to show him his childhood home in a music video.

His response? "I have no idea what the address was... I was 4.  Try the house my parents are in now."
Unfortunately, here's what happened:

Your address doesn't contain enough Street-View and/or Google Maps data to 100% enjoy this experience.

If you're lucky maybe your house will show up.  Mine did:

"my tree" is the largest of the two pines; The man/fleeing smoke monster are for scale

I was able to see the pine tree my parents planted in my honor the week I was born, not that I'm bragging, it's a monster.  If you get the same error, maybe you should try the address of the White House or something.

september goals

My goal is to post every single day this month.  I've been running out of ideas to talk about and been a downer lately... on top of feeling guilty about neglecting this space.  September is a new start!

So did you pick out your new computer desktop?

Escalate - Free streaming awesomeness

I am SO looking forward to today's Escalate speaker, Jessica Claire.
Next to Jasmine Star, she is one of my favorite photographers and a complete inspiration to my desire to be a photographer!  What? I haven't mentioned that before? Nevermind, then.

I got exteremely lucky that JC's presenting during my lunch hour today, now I've gotta start charging that iphone.  If you're interested, you can attend the live feed for free online, or on your iphone using the UStream app!

Freebie Friday - Pop Tab Container Wrap

As you may know, a coworker and I collect pop tabs for Ronald McDonald House Chicago.  I've made dorky little signs and taped them to jars for my Mom's office, my church, and our house. So far, we've managed to accumulate two 5-gallon buckets of tabs!

Yesterday, I noticed the library had a way-cuter and much more professional "container wrap" colored by an adorable budding artist.  It is much better than my janky sign, so this week I'm sharing a free download for a printable jar wrap made by professionals at RMH marketing:

Click here to download

Since I have trouble coloring in the lines, I've made a color version that will surely suck every drop of ink out of your printer, but just remember, it's for a good cause!

Click here to download

Here's hoping you start collecting your own pop tabs, and if you do, I promise to pick them up from your house and take them to RMHC!

Mad Peeps

Because this caused me to crack a smile after crap week:

via +

(What's that? It's only Wednesday?!)

love this video mashup

"not just awful, god-awful"

To quote max cannon, that's how my week's been.

Looking forward to some monster cleaning this weekend, chinese take-out, Bright Star, mailing our *joint* taxes, and hopefully cracking a few windows around the house to remove the smell of tacos...so delicious, but so smelly.

Special thanks to my ladies that have been so supportive this week. This one's for you:

favorite

my new favorite screen saver

via +

wish I could install it at work.

what I'm doing, right now.

I'm sitting in my cube silently bawling my eyes out at this amazing and beautiful story.

(via Literally, Genevieve Clare)

Nerds! It's Valentine's Day!

from here

ugh, food

Tired of the daily marriage count and adding that little heart... I'm so over it.

Did you watch today's Oprah - Food 101 with Michael Pollan?

Yikes! It just reinforces what I know I'm suppose to be eating (and not eating).

Food allergies already limit my diet, but those are things I should being avoiding anyway according to Alicia Silverstone's kind/vegan diet: no dairy, no pork, and limited serving of eggs.  Andy and I basically decided we'll just have to eat at Chipotle more often.  Also, isn't Chipotle owned by McDonald's? Sometimes Oprah doesn't ask the hard questions, just the crazy ones, like involving poop and inviting your friends over to see it.

There's so much more I could be doing to eat healthily, but in the mean time... here's my 10 year plan and latest blog crush:

The Pioneer Woman

good advice ♥ 107

"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen." - Conan

Freebird

Haiti ♥ 100

At least a couple times a week I wonder "why didn't I take Spanish in high school? It would be so useful!" but now I wonder if four years of French was part of God's plan... I've been watching AC360 earthquake coverage. It's so heartbreaking, especially the coverage of the orphanages.

via AC360º

Free *Cute* Printable 2010 Calendars

I thought I was going to be forced to spend my morning designing a 2010 calendar in photoshop, but thanks to Chicago Girl Gone Mild I can begin my End of Month/Year reports instead.

Click HERE and scroll down to choose from 7 different free designs!

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling...

Guilty as charged.

Read more HERE

Happy last hump day of the decade!

merry christmas!