mail + cupcakes

I came home to another wonderful mail surprise this evening:

Last month Chau's Coloring Book Club partner went AWOL, so we decided to do an exchange on the side. Lucky me, because look what she sent me! I'm totally framing this popsicle masterpiece. I hope she likes what I send her (when I finish it...in a week...hopefully)!

And Chau also shares a love of Mike Perry, and included a copy of his Iron Me On iron-ons, which I've been wanting for--oh, I don't know--forever. Seriously, one of the coolest packages I've ever received in the mail. Thank you, Chau! And look how gorgeous she was in her wedding/wedding dress earlier this month!

Also received Sarah McNeil's gingham print cards in the mail. Okay, I bought these, but I'm super excited about this purchase.

Decided to make cupcakes again, but "tie-dye" ones instead of the rainbow ones I made before. I was super pleased with how the icing came out this time, too (delicious). And don't judge the lumps in the batter; it still tastes as good.

Ta-da! Wasn't as pleased with how they looked, though. Oh well.

Some people asked for the recipe I used last time. Well, I'm Pillsbury's bitch. I buy the Moist Supreme Classic White cake mix, mix that shiz up, then divide the batter evenly into bowls depending upon how many colors I want to use. For the rainbow cupcakes I then layered the colored batter in the wrappers in the pan. More specifically, I'd drop a little batter in the wrapper and then flatten the batter with a spoon so that I could add another layer on top of it. This took awhile. Then I cooked then for a little over 15 minutes at 350 degrees, and shazam: done.

The frosting I make from scratch, using a recipe similar to what follows; I can't really remember what the exact measurements are, but I wing it and it's turned out fine a total of three times. I put the following into a bowl and used a mixer to mix it to an icing-like texture:

• 3.5 cups confectionary sugar
• 3/4th stick of butter
• a few pinches of salt
• two or three drops of vanilla

Today I added a full stick of butter and wasn't really sure if I had 3.5 cups of the sugar, but the icing tasted the best it ever has. Hurrah! Nevermind the calories...

The best part of working in a museum--besides, ugh, working with the public, of course, ahem--is all the behind-the-scenes stuff. At the Zoo we get to listen to keepers and handle animals, at the Brooklyn Museum I used to wander around the Egyptian Collection when the lights in the galleries were off (a pretty spooky and surreal experience, as if you're actually in a tomb), at the National Museum of American History I handled guns from Harpers Ferry and pistols from Nazi Germany, at the Met I held a Kiki Smith sketch in my hands and walked alone in the galleries in the mornings, imagining I was in my own personal gallery (like in the movies). And when a friend of mine was interning at the American Museum of Natural History, I went on a tour of the offices and collection storage spaces. I'm telling you, it looks like Hogwarts back there. So if for no other reason, these perks should be incentive enough for one to go into the museum field. Or for someone to befriend a friend who works in one.

Long story short, these photos of the installation and care for objects at AMNH are pretty enchanting. That Museum's exhibition spaces are still pretty antiquated, but these images provide a provenance that makes them seem kind of charming.

via jokemijn

what have I become???

I now hate that I use the German "filme" for my movie label on this blog...

...sent my way by my boo, Lauren...

paper + cats

Speaking of mail (uh, three posts ago...), I had a huge smile on my face yesterday when I received some awesome mail from two awesome people. I know letters and postcards aren't a huge deal, but it's nice receiving something that isn't loan- or credit card-related in the post. And plus, these two ladies are awesome and I thought I'd give them a shoutout.

My dear friend Lauren from DC (Alexandria, actually) turned the big 2-8 last Monday and I sent her some shiz in the mail. She then sent me this awesome cat postcard. Lauren is hilarious, totally random (which I love), and super sincere, and I miss her terribly since my move back to PA. She often leaves really stupid comments on this blog; no offense, Lauren. But I do appreciate them. Check out the cool crap she does with the youth at the National Building Museum.

Rebecca is an awesome blog friend, except that she doesn't have a blog. She needs to have a blog. She's thinking about having a blog. Say it with me, everyone: start a blog, Rebecca, start a blog! She once mailed me her copy of How Proust Can Change Your Life after reading this post, just so I could read it. I finally returned it to her last week--five months after I received it, and it should be no surprise then that I owe money to every library I have a card to--and she sent me a very sweet letter and the above Sarah McNeil-Sweetie Pie Press button that Anabela mentioned a few weeks back. I was tickled pink, since I wanted one so badly but my shopping ban could not permit it. It is now on my Kanken, where it shall remain forevs (soon to be accompanied by this button, which I did, uh, order...recently...).

I've also been keeping myself busy with a little project. I decided to stop being a total bum and actually make something for my (past and present) partners in the Coloring Book Club. I'm on a zine kick, and this one's gonna be swelllllll. It may or may not have something to do with cats...

by the way...

The Rachel Comey Clutch Bag is available for 50% off over at Beklina until tomorrow, 10:59 a.m. (EST). It's the Lucky deal of the day (with coupon code "luckydaily2"), but is only still available in the above red print and solid cork color (not pictured). It's $140, dudes! All the way down from $280. Major score!

Damn you one more time, KARATE CHOP CREDIT CARD KICK.

I will not stop writing that in all caps.

I don't know if it's because I'm innately misanthropic (a.k.a. a hermit), but I want ever so badly to live in a country house out in the woods by myself.  I think about the year I lived in my own apartment, alone, without cable AND internet. The latter deprivation was pretty painful, but I got to spend a lot of time reflecting and talking to myself (HAH), two of my favorite activities. And then I would turn on my music, have my own dance parties, eat lots of pesto pasta, and play dress-up in my closet. And watch PBS. Lots of PBS, King of the Hill reruns, and the late night talk shows. This was all a needed reprieve after working four part-time jobs and going to grad school full-time during the day. And dealing with a bunch of crazy, psycho classmates.

That being said, I am quite envious of the little cabin Elisabeth of Fine Little Day might be buying. I hope she gets the house, because I know how much I would enjoy the tranquility that setting seems to offer. And: it's green. One of my two favorite colors.

via Fine Little Day

you're my dreamboat / hero

Made an exception to my KARATE CHOP CREDIT CARD KICK and ordered these two cards from memohelen's Etsy shop. They've been in my favorites for awhile now, and since I just sent out a bunch of cards, I needed to restock the arsenal. Who doesn't love cards in their mailbox???

Anyway, Helen was super sweet during our e-correspondence and I lust for pretty much everything in her shop. And that includes her awesome zines, which I hope to be able to buy when I have cash $ again. Oh! And I received the cards from across the pond in record timing, which is a nice plus.

WHO'S excited???

ME ME ME!!!

a few things

I'm really excited to see what Ilana's Fall/Winter collection is going to look like. I've loved watching the progression of her line, and I'm a huge fan of two-tone dresses. And why can't we wear sleeveless in December? Cardigans, amiright?

And I'm currently in the midst of a KARATE CHOP CREDIT CARD KICK, so I can't spend any cash $ at all, but there are some pretty amazing sales out there that are killing me. They are as follows:

• Julia's summer sale over at Rennes means the Gables Satchels are at 30% off! I will suffer in silence...
• Ellen's killer sale over at Dusen Dusen. I think one of these seasons I'm going to have to invest in her backpacks to go along with my Fjällräven. And, duh, I will make sure I have $ when her next collection launches.
• Sunja Link's sale means her Back Button Blouse is more affordable. Drat.
• And all shoe sizes 6 & 8, I hate you. The A Détacher pumps I've been lusting over for months are on sale--though only by about $80, so they're still over $300--at Assembly NY in black. It's true, I really only wanted the brown ones, but when you can't have something you want, you only want it more.

I received an email from a famous person today.

PSYCH.

But I did receive this email:

That's his legit first name, folks, hyphen and all. And he's an administrative assistant, working his way up in the world. I personally would have had the name legally changed or had myself emancipated from my parents through a court order to do so.

Golden Ponies

Ever since my trusted brown oxfords--brogues, if that's your style--died on me, I've been on the hunt for some new go-to's. I mean, I wore those shoes everywhere, with everything.  I haven't had much luck doing the occasional Etsy search lately (where I scored all of my oxfords), so I've held out and worn out other shoes instead. But then I came upon* these kicks on Golden Ponies' Etsy shop and almost died. They're handmade! And just $36 a pair!

And does anybody have a clue where you can get heart tights just like those? Not the lame Urban or AA kind... The red heart kind.

*OH! That's where I've seen these before! Via Anabela! Ahhhhh, yes. My mind isn't failing me. Completely.

OH again! Erandi makes satchels, too! How cute (and affordable, at $71). I just wish I could get one as a backpack, since those are normally SO expensive.

All images via Golden Ponies. And visit Erandi's Flickr for more color options.

The post in which I research synonyms...

...in light of my ineptitude in using contrived adjectives (see: awesome, rad*, beautiful, wonderful), and all I come up with are more contrived adjectives.

Nevertheless, my search yielded some interesting verbage, despite the fact that said words aren't really applicable to the content or context of this blog (I just like how they sound):  bonny  grody  recherché

And I realized I should be using these words more often:  electric  ace


Question: what's your favorite word? Mine would have to be "possibly," mostly because it sounds so rad* in other languages, but also as it invites mystery into a conversation. Or the means of dodging a question.

Little O by Wolfbrother

Yet another wonderful* shop new on my radar, also via an emailed link. Dee of Little O by Wolfbrother makes the most adorable necklaces, and--get this--they're super cheap (in the $20's). There are so many shapes, people!

I especially love some of the details she uses on her clasps, especially the heart on this necklace (probably my favorite of the bunch).

*Someone needs to get me a thesaurus. My adjectives need retirement.

ring ring, HOOKAH*, ring ring

Who's been keeping up with the madness that is the third season of True Blood?? The 180-degree neck twist mid-coitus? The weirdass Nazi werewolf clan? Tara gettin' f'd over again in the male department by the same creepass from The Tudors? Beeeeeeeeell skipping out of town? What's going ON???

Though I must say, I have been enjoying a few things this season: the hottie bawd of the nice-guy werewolf, Eric Northman (*semi-spoiler*) getting this close to banging Sookie (do it, gurrrrrrl), Lafayette attracting some cute male-nurse tail, Jason as shirtless 5-0.

Let me say that again: Jason as shirtless 5-0.

You may see my license and registration anytime, officer.

Thoughts? Thoughts?


*not to be confused with the "water pipe," but instead a "hookER"

"Embarrassing Moments," Muumuu House

This made me laugh. I enjoy her style of writing.

FORAGE by Something's Hiding in Here

Another one of those moments I wish I were a dude. For the fashion only, I promise.

back-to-school shopping

When we went to the Brooklyn Flea the last weekend in June there was one thing I really regret not having purchased, that being this backpack by the label LAYERxlayer.*

Honestly, I only had about $40 on me at the time, half of which I had already spent on cards and a tea towel. But since this version of the studio's backpack is only available at the Flea, I desperately want to make another trip so I can go and snag one. Look how cute it is!

Much, much more on the label's Etsy.

*Lisa already made mention of the label on her blog.

Becca Stadtlander

Over the past few days I've received some pretty amazing links in my inbox due to that thing I made, and I'm so delighted to have all this new reading material/inspiration! And plus I feel like I have a bunch of new internet friends, though that might just be me. Anyway, I wanted to highlight one of these new internet peeps and her craft: that of artist and illustrator Becca Stadtlander.

Becca's work defines my personal taste in illustrations: saturated colors, folksy, somewhat reminiscent of Mughal miniatures in terms of coloration, execution, and subject matter (probably my favorite form of "high" art, aside from work from the Neue Sachlichkeit movement). Coincidentally, the latter coincides with Becca's "British Safari fascination," which has manifested in sketches of British imperialistic scenes. Her blog is limitless in visual inspiration, with watercolors of flora and fauna, wild animals, and individuals from days of yore accenting the pages.

Becca also has an Etsy shop and main site for her work. Oh, and she embroiders! And who knew there was a drawing club exchange just like the Coloring Book Club?! I wish I was more artistically inclined, because I would love to receive these illustrations in the mail.

And bats! They're my favorite animal at the Zoo! Though I don't think these are the same as the Rodrigues fruit bats...

Look what I found today! Old school Lisa Frank! It's so old the eraser's hard and the paper's peeling off.

And dudes, thank you to everyone who sent me an email today for a link to my e-zine! I had a good ole time reading the emails and finding out about more coolass people on the interweb. You can obvs send me an email anytime in the future for the link, especially readers out there that I have yet to have the pleasure of knowing! (That sounds so narcisscistic but I couldn't think of another way of phrasing it, since this email thing is a good way to exchange "howdy's"...)

And look what else I found! It's my ID from my Met internship (w/Gabe), and, dude, look at the man hair; a nice visual for your reading, am I right? But apparently Gabe liked it. And if you look closely you might also notice how wonky my left eye looks when I smile. Burn.

The Sagas: The Final Chapters

Guys! I just finished the most intensive writing project of my life. Outside of my undergrad thesis. Shows how little storytelling stamina I have.

Remember the sagas of Mr. B and Gabe? Well, I decided I had to finish telling them, but I thought about it and was concerned with posting such personal info on my blog. So I decided to make them into an e-zine of sorts, Google Docs style. The zine*, An Addendum, continues where I left off with each saga, disclosing every tantilizing detail till the very end. And it's 20 fucking pages of goodness.

The deets: for the 411 send me an email (to anaddendumzine@gmail.com) and I'll send you a link to the zine in return. But since there are certain people I don't want reading this--EVER--I just ask that you send me a link to your blog, twitter, Flickr, Etsy profile, etc., just so I know you're not one of those peeps. Or if you've commented in the past, fuhgeddaboudit. Just send me an email.

I know I'm being paranoid, but this shit is juicy, and I can't have someone who knows Mr. B or Gabe reading this. Obvs.

And to whet your appetite, a snippet from one of the tales (I'm not disclosing which):

I’m a lady, and I also don’t think it would be of interest to anyone here to be more graphic about what transpired in the following hours. The salmon was cooked. The laces were tied. The appointment was made. The package was shipped. Whatever code analogy we want to use, the deed was done. And it was good.

So email me for a copy! I promise it's worth it. Makes for trashy beachside/bedtime reading. And I swear that the aforementioned excerpt is as graphic as my writing gets. Though I do mention a makeout sesh or two. Or three. But is it me making out w/a hot dude, or my sister's puppy inadvertently making out w/me? I don't know. Read to achieve.

And I hope you can appreciate my shitty attempt at taking a non-shitty photograph. Even w/Pac Girl, I think I failed.


*I say "zine" b/c I did make a few printed copies in zine form, so I'm riding on that technicality.

Coloring Book Club, July/August

AHHHHH! I've been hankered down this past week trying to meet my self-induced dealine in getting something interesting together for the blog in regards to two certain sagas, so I've been a total bum with the new CBC partners! But I promise that'll be my project for tomorrow Tuesday night, getting those emails out, including everyone that has sent me an email in wanting to join the club over the past few weeks. Scouts honor! From a non-scout...

And I'm rather proud of the shit I've put together for those sagas, btw. More on that on Tuesday...

via ana ventura's Flickr

Who wants to build a secret fort like this with me?