Genius

someone has answered my prayers, this pillow is chocolate scented! Who needs real chocolate - well, maybe in addition to real chocolate. It looks like it's for your couch or something but screw that I would fill my bed up with these and enjoy life.

Reasons Why I Don't

So I ordered Girl Scout Cookies the other day and I realized that not one single thing has changed about those things in something like 15 years. I mean, obviously it's because they are perfect in every way but wow. The form is the same, the cookie flavors are the same, and parents still bring the order forms to the office to swindle childless people like myself into spending $30 on cookies.
Besides the deliciousness of the cookies, Girl Scouts is a tiny bit of a sore spot for me since my mother would not let me be in Girl Scouts. She literally said that it bred Susie Homemakers and she for one would not be allowing her daughters to be in such an organization. All I wanted was that brown outfit and the cookies. Plus they looked like they had pretty good snacks. She was one of those moms. When I was in second grade she shaved her head like Annie Lennox in the Eurythmics and wore a mini skirt. And apparently had a problem with Girl Scouts.
I guess in the end it all worked out though since I have zero homemaking skills and I have never once been accused of being a "Susie Homemaker" so my mom won that one.
Side note: she may have won another one too because while I was thinking about it, I probably wouldn't want my daughters involved in Girl Scouts either.

February 14 is Valentine's Day, February 13 is Mistress Day.

Julian Niccolini, of the Four Seasons, says that February 13 is one of their busiest days of the year. “Men bring their mistresses then, so they can bring their wives on Valentine's Day.”
Gourmet Magazine

Swagger Like Us

MOB

Listen Up Guys: The Untuck

I want to have a quick talk about un-tucking your shirts. I have seen you doing it, and I have seen it done well and not so well. Here's the deal.
Do NOT, untuck a dress shirt that is meant to be tucked in, you can tell because it will be too long and look too stiff and boxy to be hanging out. If you bought it in the work-ish section of a store than you should probably not leave it un-tucked. Girls can tell the difference so you'll need to familiarize yourself.
Next, do NOT untuck a shirt and also wear baggy-ish jeans. They will need to be tighter (they don't have to be skin tight) just more fitted and preferably in a darker wash ok?
That said, you can tuck in wrong too. If you have jeans that ride a little higher on the waist and then tuck in with a belt, you will look like Erkel.
Above and below are some visuals. I hope this helps.

Below is a NO-NO. you can see that even with jeans this guy would still look like a dork.

Simple

photos at Etsy
I have a craving for all things amusement park today. Cheesy acts, cotton candy, snowcones, rides that just about make you puke. It's so much better when the acts are transparent and the tricks are just tricks for fun. Anyway, I remember my mom telling me not to go to them because they "don't set up the rides properly and you could die." There were a lot of things that my mom warned me about and most of them ended in my untimely death. Deer crossing the road, jumping off of a boat while the motor was running, hanging off the side of a car while its moving, basically every single thing that seemed cool when I was 10. For some reason, jumping off of a moving boat just seemed like a really fun thing to do. Still does.

I Can See Right Through You

CribCandy
Recycled X-ray lamp.

An Open Letter To Winter

Dear Winter -

Thanks for showing up and making Christmas white and all but seriously....
enough.
I can't wear anything pretty and all of my beautiful boots have salt on them. My car has salt on it, my coat has salt on it. I desperately miss grass and birds and trees and have been forced into the tanning booth to get some Vitamin D. If I get skin cancer I will blame you Winter.
So anyway, no offense but can you please go away?

caitlin

Fancy Footwork

Arming Myself

I had a spike bracelet like this years ago but my boyfriend at the time took it and promptly moved to another college. Anyway, I'm hunting for a new one this weekend.
Also, I hate posting celebrity stuff here but Lady Gaga is just blowing me away.

Little Comets

I'm feeling what's coming from the UK lately.

Let's Take A Moment For Cake!

Omnomicon
I was kind of having a boring Wed. morning and then.... cake!
It looks super easy to make (even for me). I guess there's this new Betty Crocker Gel Color that makes the colors a lot brighter than food coloring.

Sharky

by Pablo Matteoda from designboom
I don't drink tea. Ever. Mostly because it doesn't have espresso in it but this is awesome!

Six Words Are Somehow Just Enough

I love the idea of this book "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs" because I am a huge fan of short communication. Granted, I get drawn into lengthy conversations on occasion but some of the most powerful moments of my life have been short. Here is mine: got any good 6 word summaries?
Just Show Up And Surprise Me.

What If There Is no Silver Lining?

My day started with an e-mail from a close friend saying people were telling her she was negative. Since I have a little experience in being the accused on that one I wrote her back about being ourselves, that funny is sometimes misconstrued as negative, installing a comment box at her desk, that letting negativity out is more healthy that keeping it in, etc.
I realized that I wouldn't want her to start sugar coating herself. I love it when I wear something awful and she tells me she'll stop being my friend if I wear it in public.

Then about an hour ago I watched an anchor woman on TV do a story about "the recession" and "losing jobs" and try to optimistically spin the story to "which companies are hiring". Her answers? Health care and McDonalds. Ummmm, maybe it's just my negativity kicking in but I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that once McDonalds puts up 1000 more stores that of course we'll all be needing additional doctors appointments to deal with the obesity that will ensue.
Do we need to try to put a positive spin on everything?

The Coveted
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo Da Vinci

Monday Eyebrows

This is a great British commercial for Cadbury's. When I came home from London I was depressed that I couldn't get Cadbury's Golden Crisps ANYWHERE. I can find almost any other Cadbury product but not the one that would likely be responsible for my heroin-like addicion to Cadbury's. By the way guys, if you're getting chocolate for a girl this Valentine's Day, Cadbury trumps Hersheys any day.

An Actual Conversation

Overheard this weekend:

Girl 1 :  What are you doing?

Girl 2:  Nothing, I'm just cleansing my nose palate.

In front of  Whole Foods:

Guy to his son:  No, no, no Dinosaurs did NOT have fur.

A Jolly

via Inside the Loop
Fewer than 100 of these Jollies exist, originally made in Italy and cost about $1700. Aren't they wonderful?

Day and Night

This song is huge in London this week... on first listen I didn't like it that much but it started growing on me.

via asofterworld

A Night In The Twilight Zone

What started out as a fairly normal night out somehow deviated into some kind of scene out of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It started with dinner at this Thai place that turns into a crazy mid 90's karaoke joint right around 7:30 which just so happened to be right in the middle of our dinner. The only song choices were Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, some song about elephants and animals, and Thai songs. When the machine broke, the woman singing just kept right on going with her rendition of "The Harper Valley PTA". Then the disco balls came and the owner sung in Thai and sent our table plates of corn flakes. yeah. Corn flakes. I wondered if we had somehow accidentally taken mescaline.
Because this obviously wasn't quite weird enough yet, in the middle of the dance floor I had an allergic reaction to something that made me break out in hives all over my body. I would say that the end of last night was my worst looking night ever.
So now I have to call the doctor with all the tiny chairs to figure it all out.

Tellin' Time

I would wear any of these Normal Watches.

Habanero

Patricia Urquiola

Fashion I Will Be Stealing

From Paris Fashion Week via Jak & Jil

I Spy

"In the future everyone will have 15 megs of fame"

"Streets are condemned to monotony, fights for resurrection grow for defense of the sudden death. Public art is at the corner mixing with the surroundings with no appealing to the pedestrians."

SpY installations in Madrid via Swiss Miss

Ribbons

Four Tet's new stuff.

Am I Getting a Lolly?

So I go see my new primary doctor this week and of course, no one tells me that she specializes in kids when I make the appointment. So when I show up all the chairs are really small and there's tons of toys around and everyone is looking at me wondering if I have an imaginary friend still or something. (Anyone seen Drop Dead Fred?) Fortunately, she was running late so I got to hang extra long with my new 5 year old friends.
I realize that I could definitely teach these amateur kids a thing or two about tantrums.
In the spirit of immaturity, here's a really great site that's kind of for kids.

Embroidering The Truth

Burfitt

KillaQueenz: Bitches Don't Like Me

I just found the KillaQueenz from Australia and I Love Them! The song doesn't start until about 2 min. in but it's worth it.

Speaking With Strangers

This site is great, sign up for the community and leave a note in a book for a stranger. I'm one of those people who writes in all books (borrowed or not) anyway so I immediately loved the concept. Kind of along the lines of PostSecret. NamelessleTTer.

Next Time I'm In Maldives....

Ithaa Underwater Restaurant
I have been spending an unhealthy amount of time planning my next vacation and am pretty sure that it will not include Maldives. However, I am headed back to Santa Fe in a week or so and then Las Vegas a few weeks after that where I will hopefully gamble my way either to a small fortune that can get me to Maldives or at least some kind of shotgun marriage to mortify my family with.

Suite Stuff

I like this mirror from Suite New York. Thanks Christina!

Art is Never Finished, Only Abandoned

photos by Henk van Rensbergen