The end of the aughts

The end of the aughts couldn't be better, I am at work right now, however I am enjoying having the entire office to myself. I managed to get a copy of a CD that I have been eyeing for a long time, Jenny Lewis and The Watson twins, Rabbit fur coat. I have been blasting it in the office all morning and I think I have fallen in love with Jenny all over again. The best part? Her cover of the Traveling Wilbury's "Handle with care" featuring the Watson Twins, Matt Ward (solo artist, and from She&Him), Ben Gibbard (from the postal service & death cab for cutie) , and Coner Oberest (from bright eyes). It is a favorite song of my fathers, sung by my favorite artists. I love when musicians colaborate. (PS Check out Monsters of Folk). 

Today seems to be promissing a good night, and a great begining to next year. She&Him are set to release vol.2 in the spring of 2010, I have 2 blog-related projects coming up, and Kyle & I may be taking a trip to Chi-town via Big Blue Bus come March. Also, I have opportunity to get some OT at work since I just got my computer back today. School starts up on the 5th and I am taking an advanced poetry class that I am very excited about. As long as I make it through tonight, I should be fine. Kyle, Jamie, and my friend Suzzie and I  are going to The Magic Bag in Ferndale to check out some local bands, should be a blast.  We are all dressing up too, the first NYE that I will be donning a dress, one that Kyle picked out for me from F21. If Jamie brings her camera, I may have a chance to show everyone how the night goes. What are all of your plans for this evening?

Happy New Year to all of you!!

Pretty Little Things

A few of the wonderful gifts I received on Friday :)

These sweet pendants from my friend Mariah. 

A copy of a movie that I have been dying to see from Kyle :) 

A gift certificate to this sweet little vegan restaurant, The Inn season cafe. Also, from Kyle.

The most awesome handmade scarf known to mankind, created by my Best Friend Jamie. 

This lovely teal top from my parents (one of many! lol) 

Details
Top-Gift
Skirt-F21
Tights-Target
Boots-Payless
Necklace-DIY (pin from F21 that broke, strung on a chain I had)

I have the most wonderful family & friends that anyone could ask for. <3

Chocolate Legs

"Why do your legs look like chocolate? What happened?"

Was the response I received when I wore this outfit to work.  The pictures for today's post were actually taken a few days ago, right after work (hence the hair, which has since been trimmed).  I tried out some new brown tights I had bought from Target with a dress that has been hiding in the closet since summer. I paired the dress with a gray cardigan I had obtained a few years ago and voila! Appropriate outfit for a winter work day. I really like how the cardigan is shaped to fit the collar of the dress perfectly. 

Louie felt inclined to join me for a pic, even though he is facing the wrong way. 

 =]

 

Details
Dress: F21

Cardigan: ae

Tights: Target

Shoes: Payless

*PS I just watched "It's a wonderful life" for the millionth time and I still fall in love with that movie all over again each time I watch it. I hope everyone had a happy Christmas!

Bow down,Daisy Duke.

Do you ever play a song and suddenly the world is just amazing? Your day just gets that much better? That no matter what mood your in, your instantly calm and excited all at once? Well there are many bands that I favor for just those reasons. One of them, is Rooney. Named after Principal Rooney of Ferris Bueller's day off,  Rooney is composed of five talented musicians from California, who are very easy on the eyes :) Front man Robert Schwartzman has an amazing voice, and if you didn't know that he is related to Jason Schwartzman the actor, then maybe you'd recognize him from The Princess Diaries, or The Virgin Suicides. 

The sound of Rooney is pretty swell. It has a range in style, genre and can be compared to other music from the 60's all the way to the 90's. The combination of lyrics and music of this band gives me a tactile sensation that which causes my being to want to dance and sing along as obvious as possible. They are the closest thing to a "boy band" that I like, and by that I mean BAND, as in, they all play instruments, and very well. Although, most guys that I have played Rooney to have rather liked them as much as the girls that I have played them too.  Most of their video's are deliberately goofy/cheesy, which rocks because they are so entertaining. 

     I was lucky enough to see and meet Rooney a few weeks ago when they came to Detroit and played a show at the Magic Stick. Yes. I got to MEET them. They were all so nice! They asked how we all liked the show, mentioned that they were going to go bowling after, shook everyone's hand and chatted a bit. Robert said he liked my bow necklace *big girly squeals* and he even shook Kyle's hand while I got them to sign my copy of their new

EP wild one.

The show was amazing, we stood right next to the stage, and next to speakers (my ears rang the entire next day).  The opening band The Crash Kings were really great as well, I didn't care too much for Tally Hall. They were not bad at all, it's just their genre was pretty different then that of Crash Kings and Rooney. Jamie & I got to meet The Crash Kings as well and we got a pic with them :) 

=]

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Decided to get a jump on the resolutions early! (That and Hollywood video is the only place I know where I can take Louie indoors.) After running back & forth through the aisles a few times, Kyle & I agreed on "The man who knew too much"  for the first in our Hitchcock viewing series. (We also rented "mixed nuts" for the holidays & "lilo & stitch" because kids movies are free).

A little knowledge can be a deadly thing.

"The man who knew too much" was actually made into a movie twice. Once in 1934, once in 1956. Hitchcock claimed that the 1954 version was "Superior".  We rented the 1956 version, because that is what they had in stock, and I can also never say no to Jimmy Stewart. Doris Day stars alongside the puppy-eyed, handsome actor as Jo McKenna, Stewart as Ben, a married couple visiting Morocco with their son Hank. The vacation turns traumatic when they meet mysterious Louis Bernard and their son Hank gets kidnapped, and taken to England. While the McKenna's are trying desperately to reunite with their son, they stumble upon an assassination plot which prevents them from getting to their beloved child. 

The plot is superb, as well as the acting.  The film won an academy award for best song for "Que Sera, Sera" (whatever will be, will be) sung by Doris Day. It has been stuck in my head all day and co-workers kept asking me if I was singing my name to myself.

I absolutely loved this movie, and I recommend it to anyone & everyone :) 

It all came down, on Sunday

First off would like to mention that not having school equals out more free time than I would have thought, it however does not mean that I have been the most productive person. Not really a horrible thing, however, after a week of blowing everything off I feel like being more productive on this lazy Sunday. I have decided to get a start on my new years resolutions. I know right? a little lame, however I feel like doing something a little different this year.  I will have a few "restrictions" i.e. eat less junk food, exercise more, blah blah, but I wanted to incorporate a few twists into my usual regime of resolutions. So here it goes: 

1) Meet new people. Not that there is anything wrong with the people I know, I have just come to realize that a lot of my friends work different schedules as me and some of them live a little far so it limits the time I have to spend with them. It does not mean that I cannot make new friends or spend a little time talking to new people. For instance, I rarely talk to people at school. I am not trying to be snobby or rude, I just don't know what to say most of the time. My last semester at O.C.C. was different.  I took a French class and sat next to a girl named Anne and we began chatting about French, and food and music. Then we decided to study together and realized that we had a lot in common. Including making the teenage buys that sat behind us look more mature in class. We also began to talk to the boys, Jon and Alex, and would up doing a project together. A year later and Anne is one of my closest friends and I still talk to the boys via txt and Facebook. We all also meet up for coffee once in awhile, we call ourselves "The French four", like we are some French-speaking super hero students. 

           I think that this might be a little more challenging than it sounds, but I am going to take a stab at it. I tend to frequent the same places when I go out, something else I'd like to work on, but I don't go out all that much and I tend to treat myself to the places I like.  I went last week with Kyle to a bar in Detroit, Grand Truck, for some lunch and we struck up conversation with the bar tender Paulie. We went back in yesterday for some apples to apples & yummy food and we all got invited to a pajama party at his place for next Saturday. Normally I would be hesitant and nervous, but I am going with the guys and my bestie, so it should be fun. 

2) Cook new recipes. New to me recipes, since I usually don't use them at all, actually. I was inspired by a movie (I know, I know) but I saw Julie & Julia last night. I cannot fathom going to that extreme, however I have had a few cookbooks for awhile. I am thinking while I am in school, one recipe a week. Kyle has been putting sticky notes in the cookbooks of what he wants me to try. It will also give me a chance to get a move on that binder of recipes I want to put together, and I can give updates on that as I move along. 

3) Eat less junk. It's obvious this one had to go on here considering chips and pizza have become a staple of my diet ever since I was two, and has only increased since living with a guy. I have noticed though, after days without any fresh vege or fruit I start to crave it. It gets hard to cook meals every night while I am in school, but even a sandwich with whole-grain bread and some lettuce & tomato is so much better than deep-fried anything. I have lost 30 pounds in the past year and 8 months or so. It was very challenging and it felt good, so I would like to stay on a healthy track. Which means more exercise.

4) Shop less. I can be good at this, and really bad at times. I have to make it a new rule to not buy any new books unless it is part of a series and I am missing one of them. I have 3+ milk crates full of books that I have to read. I am working on a list of books I really want to get still, and I am making a rule for those: buy them used. Used bookstores are always more fun to browse in anyways. For clothes and music-another major weakness of mine-, since I already buy these items used as often as possible, I have to limit my purchases to two a month. Within reason of course, I never spend a lot on one item, but there are also flea markets that have records for 50 cents. So I figure I can buy more in situations like that but within reason (Limit myself to 5 bucks worth). Also when I am shopping, I would like to shop locally more often. I do pretty good with avoiding mega chain stores like Walmart most of the time. I would like to make more use of the farmers market here in Royal Oak.

5) Homemade. I want to try to make more homemade items and products. I made homemade toothpaste awhile back and it worked out pretty good, and it was very inexpensive. I have access to a ton of ideas and a blog to share with everyone, my results. 

6)Volunteer. Last spring, me and the twins decided to help cleanup Belle Isle, it was a warm day and actually a lot of fun. I got to be outside and I was helping out the environment. Also, for the past 3 years, through my job, we have also participated in the breast cancer walk on Belle Isle in October. I think trying something once a month would be realistic considering my schedule. 

7) Read & watch. I have mentioned the huge stack of unread books in my possession. My goal is to read one a week, and review the good ones on here. Movies I have always had a hard time with. Kyle loves movies, I love music and reading. I do have a handful of favorite movies and I will never turn down a screwball comedy, but I hardly watch anything else Kyle likes. I always fall asleep and I have been leaning more towards older films, little kid movies or Indie flicks. So we have agreed to tackle Hitchcock. I am very intrigued and excited to watch all of his films, I've seen a few of them but I would like to see them all. 

8) Fashion & blogging. I have only recently started blogging and I am either wanting to blog about everything, or I neglect the blog. Kyle and I have come to the conclusion that this blog is a good thing for me, since I seem to always be in a good mood when I am blogging something I like and reading interesting and awesome things on other blogs. So I am hoping to update this 2 to 3 times a week with all the randomness that is me. I am in no way a "fashionable" person in any means. I have to say that I have had a larger interest in clothing ever since I lost weight though.  I like that everyday when I get dressed, I am presenting myself to the world how I want to be presented. It also makes work and school more exciting. When I think I look nice & I feel great, it just makes the day so much better. 

*Kyle & I in Detroit with yummy coffee.

I really think this is all for now, although I should add "Make blogs shorter" considering the length of the last two.

My Sweet Louie

Since I am on break and I don't have the insane workload as I normally do, I think I might try to update this blog daily. At least whilst on break. 

I thought that I might dedicate this blog post to my sweet baby, Louie. 

Louie is an 8 month (aprox) old lab-mix. Mixed with what, we really don't know.

Louie came to live among Kyle & I in the following series of events: 

The "No Smoking on company property" rule went into effect in May 2009 at my work, Vesco oil corp. The morning warehouse supervisor by the name of Roger, went to have his daily smoke elsewhere. Elsewhere was across the street near an abandoned house right outside of our warehouse in Detroit. While puffing away on his cancer stick, Roger heard a noise. Curious, and not wanting to go back to work (it's overrated) he decided despite his old-age to climb into the dilapidated house to further investigate this strange noise. The noise was caused by a small tan dog, who was hopping around the house like a jack-rabbit. Roger went up the stairs of the house to see if he could persuade the dog to come down. At the top of the stairs, he was greeted with a surprise: a little, tiny puff of black fur was rolling around on the ground at his feet. Roger scooped the piece of fluff up to realize the fluff was an actual puppy. Louie was introduced to the human world. 

After about 90 seconds of bringing this small puppy into the office where I worked, I couldn't resist it. I picked up Louie in my arms and fell in love. 

It was 8 in the morning when this happened. I had just gotten to work and I also had just gotten a new boss only two months before. I could tell he was pretty nice but I didn't think he would let me have the day off to take home a puppy I had recently accumulated in a half-hour of being there. Still, I had to come up with something. Luckily he was okay with the puppy staying in the office with us for the day. Then Roger brought in a second puppy. A little tan one, that a driver offered to take home with him at the end of the day. Then Roger brought over the tan dog that he originally saw in the house to be taken to a "no-kill" animal shelter. At this point I think my boss gave up and decided to focus his attention on work and helping me figure out what to tell Kyle. 

I am not a creative genius. Nor am I good at keeping a straight face. So, after 8 1/2 hours of plotting what to tell Kyle, what did I come up with? 

Me: "Hurry home Kyle, I need your help with something."

10 minutes later....

Kyle: "Omg. What is that? That's NOT a cat!"

Me:" Nobody else would take him, he's all alone!" (Big watery eyes here)

And it is now December and Louie is a part of the family. Granted he could put Marley to shame with his antics, but I couldn't Imagine a world without him.

Louie enjoys chewing on anything and everything in my apartment, including but not limited to: Umbrellas, cans of soup, extension and vacuum cords, as well as hair and makeup brushes. He also enjoys walks, both long and short, barking at anyone in the park because he thinks it's his personal backyard, chasing my two kitties Mary & Bary, eating their cat food, and rolling around in the dirt right after a nice bath. His favorite foods are: anything anyone around him is eating, & stuffed animals. 

Louie is a well trained puppy. His talents are: Sitting, lying down, shaking with both paws & chewing on his leash while walking. 

*Since Louie has come home, the mother of the puppies has been removed from the house as well as 3 other puppies. The mother (while pregnant with ANOTHER puppy) was adopted by my brother's friend Loren, who still has her and the puppy she was with. My parents took a puppy, her name is pepper and Louie enjoys playing with his little sister a few times a week while I am at work. The other two puppies found homes too: My little brother's friend took one home & a friend at Kyle's work took one home. :)

<3

Start wearing purple

Start wearing purple for me now.....

I bought this at Regeneration, a cute resale shop in Pleasant Ridge MI. I love purple, it's my favorite color & I saw this last spring and thought that it was very cozy. I actually wore this to work today. My mother & Kyle both call it my "elf" dress,(although Kyle always calls me elf on account of my ears, they are pointy) because I wore it on Thanksgiving. 

It is bloody cold out today, but this woolly dress kept me warm all day.  Louie very much approved of my outfit choice, he also approved of the jambalaya I made for dinner & is currently itching for some left-over sausage. 

Details
Dress-Regeneration
Shoes-Payless
Tights-CVS

C is for "Cookie"

This week has been very eventful, both at home and at work. After the crazy week, I decided since it is that time of year and I no longer have any schoolwork to bother with for a few weeks, I wanted to do something I have been dying to do for weeks: bake cookies. So I dug out a scrap book that I have been stashing since I was 15 and decided on my Grannie's recipe for peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies.  

Not only are they completely amazing, they are the first cookies I ever baked myself (not today, 9 years ago) and I always think of my Grannie when I make them. I made a batch for the apartment, and a giant bowl is filled with cookies for work. My apartment has never smelled so good. I did use wheat flower, as that is what was in my cupboard & also chocolate chunks instead of chips and they came out pretty good.  It's actually quite relaxing to bake, and I'm actually thinking of starting a project that I wanted to start a long time ago, take down a bunch of family recipes and create my own cook-book. I even bought a three inch three ring binder to get me started. I think I will transfer the recipe to my binder, it is fitting to have my Grannie's cookie recipe as the first entry.

 I've also come to realize that this blog has has not really had a consistent theme. I've to accepted this and I think that I actually like that a lot. I also am in the process of getting my aunt to create an Esty account for her to sell her crafts and I will post advertising on here to help her get started, I though that it might be a good idea since she makes such cute stuff and I am on here anyway. :) As for the cookies, I recommend them to anyone, and here is the very easy recipe for some wicked good stuff. Enjoy!

Grannie's peanut-butter & chocolate-chip cookies. 

1 cup peanut butter

2 1/2 cups flower

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 sticks oleo 

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 bag of chocolate chips

*Bake @ 350 for 15 minutes.

 

Sunday, lovely Sunday.

First fashion-related blog post! I was very hesitant to include clothing & whatnot in my blog because I wasn't sure if i'd be inclined enough to keep-up with it. However, I felt like doing one today,  I was inspired because of this sweater I just purchased last Saturday from the Salvation army for less than $2.00! Not only is it  by far the comfiest piece of clothing I own, I think it makes this whole outfit quite comfy for a Sunday of studying. Very simple outfit for my first clothing-related blog, but I started with what I am comfortable with.

Details:
Sweater: Salvation army 
Dress & earrings: Forever 21
Stockings: Target
Shoes: Payless

The original "GG".

    Okay so there may have been an "original, original" GG but at least in the modern girl TV program world, GG in my book has always been Gilmore Girls, not Gossip Girl. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Gossip Girl is an awesome show, just not my cup of tea. I just get that little twang in my heart when I skim a magazine or another blog and I come across GG, then a slight sinking feeling when I see Blake Lively's name following those initials and not Alexis Bledel's.

    "Black Friday" of 2008, I couldn't stand it anymore. While at work I decided to do something about it. I went online and Best Buy had the ENTIRE series of Gilmore Girls half-off. Not being able to control myself, I went after work to get it. It has been over a year now and I am still only in season 6. This has a lot to do with my full-time work schedule, but the fact that I somehow got not only my boyfriend hooked on the show, but his twin brother as well. So now I cannot watch it without the two of them present. They claim it is because of the Lorelei's beauty, but I have come to notice that they love the ever-so predictable plot that is beefed up with so much unnatural quick-wit and sarcasm as much as I do. 

    Now that the semester is coming to a close, (I am currently writing my last writing assignment and submitting tonight, then after my final exam Tuesday night, I'm free!) I am hoping to squeeze in the last of GG. I have to say that both Lorelei and Rory are inspiring to me, as lame and as girly as that sounds. Rory's ambition in her study's always inspire me to work hard, the way I see it is; if a fictional TV character can be as geeked out about English as me and do well, then I can too. Lorelei inspires me at work, to tackle tasks out in front of me and to try to lighten up the mood when things get bad. As I am now fully into adulthood, I really would like to have the kind of attitude she has. The way she always make boring things "pretty" and "fun".  Needless to say that when I feel a little "blah" this show (or at least it's re-runs) always pick me up. 

    One warning about this show: while watching it, (especially with two perpetually hungry guys) you might experience a lot of food cravings. Especially for junk food. Which really is unfair when the Lorelei's are very small, yet pack it away like a teenage boy in every other episode. One minor draw-back. However the love-able characters from Suki to Ms. Pattie, make you want to befriend your neighbors and pray that they cook well and have lots of interesting stories. The sarcastic Luke will make you want to aggravate, or witness someone aggravate, the crap out of people. Kirk makes me think of some of my high school friends, with all their quirky personalities.  Paris, just reminds me of high-strung females in society that are always good to have on your side, and to watch as they shred someone to bits because they did something the "wrong" way.

    Needless to say, GG was a great show. Again, nothing against Gossip Girl, But I do wish that it would stop being initialed as GG, then the world where Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel both exist can be as awesome as it was in the Sisterhood of the traveling pants movies.

Them kids don't know how to dance to rock n' roll.

         Saw the "Sam Roberts Band" at the Fillmore Saturday night with Kyle, they were amazing. Local band "The Hard-Lessons" opened, followed by "Sloan" all three played full-sets (even though we were late & missed "The Hard-Lessons", alas, I think it means we will have to go see them soon). I wasn't, and neither was Kyle, to impressed with "Sloan", they did have a few good songs, but "Sam Roberts" opened strong and fun and pretty much stayed that way throughout the show. I have to say that my favorite song was "Detroit '67", the performance was great, complete with people taking the stage swinging a Candian and a Michigan flag. I assume that the band had to remind everyone that they are infact Canadian because thier song about Detroit was so good. ;)

The Fillmore is a beautiful theater-made-concert hall. I tried to take pictures, but I have the world's crappiest camera(I did manage to get someone to snap this pic of Kyle et Moi).  I would love to go back in sometime and take pictures of everything, with a good camera, when it's not crowded. I don't know how well that would go over though.

I went walking at street level

Feeling strange and disheveled

Past the abattoir and the glory holes

Like a film noire, in the starring role

To the side streets, kept my nose clean

Tasted beautiful, tasted obscene

Singing, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

This is Detroit, see the skyline

A commotion on the assembly line

Raise a glass to the Ambassador

As she's moving you to the dance floor

Does anyone here tonight remember those times?

Can anyone here tonight just tell me what they felt like?

So many years, so many lives

These are the streets where they collide

From Jimmy Hoffa to Cadillac

Some look ahead, I'm going back

Cause I'm just looking for some sounds

To ease the vice that squeezes us every day

This was Motown, this was New France

Where the Chippewa did the firedance

That was long ago

This is here and now

But the memory still remains somehow

Singing, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

I can't tell you how this old story ends

I can't touch you now, like they did back then

Past the child's play with the jump rope

Hear the gun play, it's a tightrope

Does anyone here tonight remember those times?

Can anyone here tonight just tell me what they felt like?

Does anyone here tonight remember those times?

Somebody call the riot police, there's trouble down on 12th Street

Detroit '67-Sam Roberts Band