So, what’s worse: That I designed an American Girl doll that looks like me, or that I really want her outfit?
I love how customize-able the American Girl collection is becoming, but it in no way makes up for them “retiring” Felicity, Samantha, and Kirsten. Not cool, America(n Girl Dolls), not cool.
So I’ve been conspicuously absent round these parts for no especially good reason (yes yes, I need to write, but it’s too hot to think straight let alone write sensibly), but I feel you all should know that this evening while I ate my dinner, I live-tweeted (somewhat) a documentary that centred on a baboon dissection. It’s not gross (no pictures, nothing enormously graphic), so if you’re curious, I put them in chronological order on Storify (I can’t figure out how to get it to embed here — anyone know how?) The show itself is an episode of Inside Nature’s Giants, the entire premise of which is “here’s a big animal that died for one of any number of reasons. Let’s dissect it and talk about it’s ecological existence!” You guys, I love this show. And plus it’s so British — there’s a ton of eyebrow acting and “er, yes, that’s, ahem, impressive” when they start talking about baboons’ enthusiastic sex lives.
More on topic, I have a few big-ish pieces I want to get written, hopefully within the next couple of weeks, but for now you’ll just have to do with my continual amazement at the inner workings of critters.
Yellow front door.
Garage sale finds.
Interior door upgrade and door knob painting.
Flower photo taking.
This one is for Katie. The same material as Tiger Couch’s partner in crime pillow. As seen at the hospital last week. (I don’t have the pillow anymore, and you already knew the fate of Tiger Couch…)
I’m at a (horribly boring) conference this week, and today was the Free* Fancy Conference Lunch day.
Wait Staff: *puts a plate of salmon and rice in front of me*
Millie: “Oh, I’m a vegetarian.”
WS: “So you want the chicken?”
M: “No… I’m a vegetarian. I’d like the vegetarian lunch.”
My supervisor, a former vegetarian, and I laugh incredulously and chat about how some people just cannot seem to grasp that vegetarian = does not eat anything that had a pulse.
20 minutes later:
M: “Any chance I’ll be able to get some lunch today?”
WS: “They miscounted the vegetarian lunches — it’ll be just a few minutes.”
M: *sigh*
20 minutes and one plate of insipid mushroom pasta later:
Extremely longwinded award presenter: “I’d like to thank the organizers for putting on an delicious and very well run lunch!”
M: “What?!”
S: “Clearly they weren’t sitting with any vegetarians.”
* My supervisor says that they aren’t actually free, because you have to sit around and listen to speeches and incredibly drawn out award ceremonies, and after today’s performance I’m inclined to agree. On the upside, sitting with him means I have someone to make snarky comments with during it.
I was paging through an online gift guide in late November hoping for some Christmas gift ideas when I stumbled upon some cool looking shirts from Bark Decor. I bought one for my brother and one for S.
I gave this one to my brother because where he lives there are many bears, and a bear bicycling with a fish in it’s mouth seemed kind of funny. Everyone liked it.
Cut to a month or two later. My brother Skypes me and explains that while he was at the bar someone commented on his shirt and asked why he was wearing a shirt with a bicycling bear that had a human arm in it’s mouth. My brother gave him a funny look, looked at the shirt, and realized it was indeed a human arm. Now the shirt can be a discussion point and he likes it even more!
Maybe I should have figured out this out earlier, seeing as the name of the shirt is Commandeered By Wilderness and the description says “This bear is in the business of stealing bikes and eating arms! Be aware, he’s fond of Schwinns, streamers and delicious body parts!” Clearly I did not read the description at all!
Awesome.
A.: So, there was a train of thought to this, but do you find Benedict Cumberbatch attractive?
Millie: …! YES. Very much so.
A.: I really am terrible at figuring out what sort of men lots of women find attractive. I never would’ve thought he’d be a public dreamboat!
Millie: Yeah, pretty much every woman I’ve been around when his name’s come up in conversation thinks he’s very, very attractive.
A.: Hmmm.
Santa Claus parades, drinking buy one get one free Starbucks Christmas coffees, watching Empire Records and painting.
Sneak peak:
CIL Mystic Purple – I know, I live dangerous!
What are you doing to live dangerously this weekend?
Five adults squished into a car. Of course I’m in the middle of the back seat. My mom is sitting next to me and asks my brother, in the front seat, to get her water from under the seat.
My brother reaches under the front passenger seat to find the water. He finds: a sugar bowl that was given to my mom by a relative. A wine glass, securely stashed and wrapped in a napkin for safekeeping under the seat. The wine glass, it was explained, is for emergency wine tastings, since if you bring your own wine glass, tastings are free in some parts. You always need an emergency wine glass, am I right?! We all laugh.
Next he finds the matching creamer to the sugar bowl. Oh, here is another wine glass, this one is for my father of course. This is starting to seem like some sort of crazy magician’s bag, but let me assure you, my parent’s car is not like something you’d find on Hoarders, it is very nice and clean.
Finally, he finds the bottle of water. Mission accomplished. And we continue our cramped car trip.
Do you have anything funny hidden in your car? Any unorthodox emergency supplies? Or maybe just something your forget to take out of the car? I have a habit of grabbing large amounts of paper napkins and avoiding eye contact with staff if we stop for somewhere for coffee or a quick bite to eat.
I’m always meaning to take a photo of this flower hollyhock fence when we drive down this particular country road. It is gorgeous!
The fence basically follows the property line along the side of the road, with four rows of hollyhocks, and it goes on for two field lengths of about 50-100 meters each.
S’s mom is going to try doing this along her country property line next spring. If it works out it should look gorgeous as well!
So over on The Twitters, Millie made a flip comment about the under-utilised phrase “banjo anthem,” so naturally we decided that this blog needs more banjo action. We’ve got you covered for all your banjo anthem-requiring situations, though admittedly some of these are on the mellow side. Leave your banjo music recommendations in the comments — you know you’ve got some up your sleeve!
This wasn’t on Grooveshark but is gorgeous:
Posted in Daily Happy, Katie, Millie, Music, Random, Silly
Tagged banjo anthems, explicit banjo action, friday silliness
We interrupt your Friday to point out that John Green’s favorite punctuation mark is…the Interrobang! Obviously, the man has good grammar taste.
(2:32, but the whole thing’s fun)
Alright, internets, you asked for (well, some of you did, anyway): It’s Caption Time!
Back for a return engagement: Possibly Pole-Dancing Bear.
Go forth, be funny, and tell us in the comments what’s happening here (with extra points in you re-create the photo and share the evidence). There’s lots of fodder: a bear! Rabbits! A bird! That air conditioning unit! And after all, it’s Monday – what else are you going to do?
A winner shall be declared and said winner will get to bask in the glory that is wit.
Posted in Random
There is little in life that is not substantially improved by wearing international orange coloured underpants.
J.K. Rowling’s mysterious Pottermore website has been on several radars this past week, with increasing speculation.
The latest information (scoop, gossip?) is that it could be “a sophisticated online game that contains clues to prizes that are hidden in the real world. These are an unstated number of magic wands secreted in Britain and America, and possibly other countries.” How cool would that be? I could totally see people getting into a complicated puzzle solving, geocaching game – I mean, we have seen the evolution of muggle led Quidditch teams.
Of course this could be a marketing ploy, but nevertheless, the mystery of Pottermore.com shall be announced tomorrow. Until then, the world will keep revolving.
I’ve come to the realization lately that despite my complete lack of good graces and gross impatience with ceremony of all varieties (varieteas?), I have unwittingly become a tea snob. It’s been months since I’ve had less than a dozen types of tea on my counter, and I’m pretty sure the ones at the back are organizing an assault on the nearby fruit basket. I pay attention to the water temperature so I don’t burn the leaves. I occasionally set a timer so it doesn’t overbrew. I get snooty about tea bags, and have absolutely no use for orange pekoe. Feel free to roll your eyes, because in spite of my drinking of tea in sturdy mugs instead of delicate cups with an outstretched pinky, this is more than slightly embarrassing.
But! If you like mint tea, or slightly spicy tea, I highly, highly recommend getting yourself some North African Mint Tea from David’s Teas. It’s minty, peppery, and almost like a light chai, and it’s some of the best tea I’ve had in ages. There’re David’s Teas around Canada, and they also have an online store. Of course they’ve not paid me to rave about their tea on the internet — it’s just really tasty.
While eating many a cheese sample there was a sign that said cheddar cheese has no lactose because it is separated in the cheese making, or what I will call ‘cheddaring process’.
I was wondering today what scallops looked like, especially since they look so simple in their cooked form. I did not expect them to have many, many, beady blue eyes, and fangs. (Okay, they probably are not fangs, but it looks like it)
…the world ends tomorrow (eye roll), here’s a song to see us all out.
Plus, pet rescue for after the Rapture.
I’m a sucker for a good murder mystery, and now a student has created a Twitter murder mystery game happening live at 7 pm EST, for a course project. Wow, I’m intrigued.
I think you can follow it on Twitter here.
Behold ye eyes, I have discovered white balance.
I bought this dress yesterday during the end of my thrift week. This was one of yesterday’s Value Village dress finds. I also bought a nearly new ivory silk/cashmere blend dress (is it ever soft!). Though the prices there were higher, this was evened out by dollar week at the thrift store across the street from work, which I visited three times, with success.
Needless to say, this week I was trapped in the dressing room for ten minutes as I tried on a vintage wool coat. Needless to say, the top button wouldn’t come undone. Cue me trying to saw the loop off with my keys (unfortunately I lost this handy key tool Katie’s dad got me to airport security a while back, that would have been my saviour!). The loop would not break! Neither would the button come off. This was some quality coat. This was probably a sign that this coat should not be mine, but I persevered and tried taking it off by pulling it over my head. Finally, the sheer strength of my scull, (and maybe some of the fraying care of my keys?), resulted in escape! Why wouldn’t I purchase it for $1?!
Saturday my friend J. came over for brunch and I got this jacket at a consignment store for a mere $1. Dollar sales at consignment stores – yes! And it fits perfectly, even in the sleeves! I love how the water dripping from the trees icicled by the lighthouse on the shore of lake Ontario.
My addiction this week? Sweet potato pie. Yum. I may have created my own recipe, and it’s delightful. I think I’m going to try making it into a cheesecake. I don’t play by the rules of baking with proper ingredients or measurements. I’m a rebel like that.
Posted in Chelsie, Cooking, Daily Style, Random, Thrifting
I really feel like I’ve cut down the sass in my online blog persona. Yes, that is a picture of me skating, with my fake Wayfarers. They were free with my contact lenses.
Speaking of contacts, I thought I had gone mad last week when I got home and realized I had picked up the wrong contact solution – MAD! Well, I was not angry but confused. See it started like this. Chelsie pours hot beverage all over herself. Chelsie thinks she’s fine and everything, cleans up. Then she feels her arm burning and stomach! So she affixed ice packs to the scalded tummy and arm areas, all the while thinking, self – when you took first aid and were a lifeguard, I’m pretty sure they told you not to do that. Enter doctor. He tells me to put the icepack directly on the harmed areas. Sooo cold… This ensues for 12 hours. Anyway, I purchased the contact solution after seeing the doctor, and I wasn’t feeling 100%. It took me 10 minutes to find the ice packs when I was standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. Okay, and maybe another 10 to decide which contact solution I thought was correct.
So I return the contact solution a couple days later, thinking I’m the dufus. Only. to. find. out. that the contact solution company changed their branding! I mean, like the bottle, logo, colours, EVERYTHING is different (though I must concede it looks snazzier).
In the end my story comes together, you skate on ice, you put ice on burns. I wore free sunny g’s skating, and I had trouble finding contact solution during my burn victim treatment.
The only part of the story that doesn’t make sense is the picture of my food below. I went to this museum restaurant after a meeting and had a grilled cheese with chipotle dip, and tempura pickles (win!), and a side of the mac and cheese, with 2 kinds of aged cheddar, some kind of sugary/spice on top, and truffle oil. The mac and cheese was wicked. The next day I had some for breakfast and it was super solidified. This means the cheese was real!
Full disclosure, I’m wearing a tensor bandage around by stomach to keep my healing burn from rubbing. I feel like I’m wearing a bit of a corset. It works though! Can you say klutz?! Hands up!
Like Katie I have been a pretty avid readers from an early age. Though Katie has a much stronger exposure to the classics, I do not. My early reading went from Archie comics, to Sweet Valley High, directly to whatever was hanging out around the house, which was mostly man fiction (adventure, spy, legal thrillers, that my dad picked up at the airport during his mostly weekly business trips). Oddly, my interest in reading did not lead me towards being a librarian, instead that was a whim when my friend J. went to a career fair and told me it sounded interesting. One application to one school later. Bam! I just as easily could have gone to Australia to become a teacher, and I practically did. I mean, Australia, for a year? YES… but no.
So, to segue into my topic, late this summer I was talking to a colleague who was telling me about the show Bones, which I had heard of, but knew nothing about, thus judging it to be boring. Then she mentioned Kathy Reichs, and I was like, what?! I did not realize the connection to the books, which I knew were still going, but I had not read them since late nineties. Then commenced my mad marathon watching of Bones, which I now adore. A couple weeks ago I caught up to the current episode.
Now I am reading her first YA book, Virals, and I am so psyched to finish it. Yay! Dinner break can not be here soon enough… Yes, I work tonight.
And now, a newspaper ad for 1890′s dresses. I found this while doing some research for a library patron on the old microfilm machines. I really get a kick out of some of those old ads.
That corset vest, belt, looks very utilitarian to me. Though there seems to be no practical utility there. I feel a little constricted and machine-like just looking at it. As soon as I scanned this one of my co-workers though I would be going to the thrift store to immediately recreate this. I have not yet attempted. The Little Bo Peep makeup might be the biggest challenge to pull off.
Posted in Chelsie, Daily Think, Life, Makeup, Random
Tagged 1890's, Bones, Kathy Reichs, Old Newspaper Ads, reading, Virals
I rarely write a blog post in one go. I’ll add the photos, plug in text placeholders where I think I should hold a place for text, and then get distracted by food or something shiny and forget what I was planning on writing in the first place and just go and make something up.*
Normally I replace the first-pass, “look at me going all Holden Caufield on your a#$” stream of consciousness I write, because I believe it’s important to maintain the rational and sane persona I present online.** But I can’t think of anything else to write, so here we go (p.s. excuse the mittens. It was frickin’ freezing this morning!):
What situation ever happened that led to the phrase “the elephant in the room” existing? I suspect it had to do with a runaway circus elephant that tried to hide behind some floral curtains, but that’s just my first theory.
The equation E=MC Hammer is 2 Legit 2 Quit.
MC Hammer should be the one with a home improvement show, not Vanilla Ice, because then he’d be able to use the phrase “Stop! Hammertime” in an appropriate setting. “Stop! Collaborate and Listen” just doesn’t fit in the DIY world.
It’s a shame that the hyphen in Boutros Boutros-Ghali isn’t between the two “Butros’s” because then his friends could call him Butros-Squared.
What if you had pica and it made you want to eat pikas? Circular and awkward.
Instead of Zumba, someone should invent a Roomba exercise class and just have tiny robot vacuums chase people around the gym for an hour.
The song “Hungry Eyes” always makes me think of “Eye of the Tiger,” which always makes me think of the band Glass Tiger, which always makes me wonder why Bryan Adams did that totally random backup solo in “Don’t Forget Me When I’m Gone,”*** and now my head hurts.
Hmm, can I get my leg up on that ledge?
Yes!
Can I get my leg off that ledge?
Not as gracefully, no.
And scene.
*That’s not true. If I was making stuff up, my life wouldn’t sound nearly as embarrassing.
**Have you all stopped laughing yet?
***Seriously, why is he in that song? Were they all in the same recording studio and Glass Tiger bribed him with a beer?
P.S. Notice how this is pretty much just a repeat of this outfit?
Posted in Daily Style, Katie, Random
Tagged cocoon sweater, knee socks over leggings, layering dresses
Or, in which the Interrobangs kill two birds with one post.
One year anniversaries call for cake!
A year has come and gone, and it hasn’t just been a calendar year, but also the first year of Interrobangs Anonymous. Technically, our first post was on December 21, 2009, but with the hullabaloo of Christmas, Solstice, New Years, and Tuesdays, we postponed our celebrating until now. So here are our favorite posts of 2010/our first year blogging together.
This is how we really act
Style and Self-Image
Tutorials
Resources
Series
Pure Awesomeness
The past year has been so much fun. Thank you for reading, commenting, and being such an amazing community of fun, inspiration, and friends.
Posted in Biology, Chelsie, Daily Think, DIY, Ethics, Fashion Reading, Fashion Thoughts, Fashion Timeline, Hair, In the News, Inspiration, Katie, Life, Links, Millie, Random, Roundtable, Sarah, Science, Sewing, Shoes, The Interrobangs
Tagged best of, blogaversary, favorites, retrospective, roundup
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