Happy Holidays!!!

Jessica & Aaron's Wedding

I found this adorable wedding over at Max & Friends. Love the colors, love how fun everyone looks, and love how it's photographed. Cheers to Jessica and Aaron's awesome wedding.

 

 

 

Randy Newman: Political Science

Izola

Beautifully designed and curated online shop Izola makes my heart melt for the upcoming holidays.  I adore the old-world aesthetic that shapes the home accessories found here, especially the cheeky flasks below.

 

 

Maybe they'll come out with some cool Valentine's cards that I can mail out this year--I'm still on the hunt for the 2013 edition of Valentine's send outs.

Austin Tree Lighting & Holiday Stroll

We went to the Austin Tree Lighting & Holiday Stroll over at the Capitol this weekend.  I tried to wrangle some friends to come but only Conner and I ended up going.  I'm not sure how to account for the lack of Holiday spirit that our friends exhibited except to say that maybe the host, John Aielli, scared them away.  John Aielli is the host of  Eklektikos, a daily 3-hr affair on KUT, that people either hate or love to hate.  I used to not mind the show at all--in fact I enjoyed his musical selections--however, I listened to it again recently and was bewildered to find that he has become a total grumpy old man.  Now, maybe he's always been that way and I never noticed but that might have caused me to jump to the Aielli haters side of the fence.  You'll be humored to find that there's even a Twitter page called Shit John Aielli Says.

Northern Beauty

via Anne Louise's Pintrest board.

Birthdays and Cake

photo via Smitten Kitchen

 

Today's my 30 birthday!!!  I've been saying that I'm almost 30 for the last 2 years and it's finally happened.  I have to say that I'm looking forward to the next decade-everyone else that's already reached this age says that it's so much better than their 20's.  I had a lovely time in my 20's-had so much fun, paved my way in the world, finally figured out what I want to do with my life for the next several years, fell in love, and bought a house.  However, what I am looking forward to in the coming years is more stability; more time to enjoy the good things and spending less time on getting bent out of shape about silly things; traveling more; and finally taking better care of myself.  Oh, and not to be forgotten-to eat more cake! 

Carrot Cake happens to be my absolute favorite type of cake.  My mom used to make it for me as a child and then I went through a phase (which lasted about 12 years) when I hated carrot and wanted chocolate.  Now I have returned to the fold and can lust after no other cake except the carrot : )  There is a lovely recipe over at Smitten Kitchen.

Antique Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Photos

 It's been a really long time since I've actually watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since I don't have television (although I do netflix it up quite often).  However, after I saw these awesome historic photos of the Macy's parade on the TIME website, I might have to make a point to watch it next year.  More photos can be found here.

Read more: http://nation.time.com/2012/11/21/catching-air-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade/#ixzz2DZw53QzU

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, NYC, 1988

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, New York City, 1988

Read more: http://nation.time.com/2012/11/21/catching-air-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade/#ixzz2DZw53QzU

 

 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, NYC, 1930's

Times Square during the 1949 Thanksgiving Parade

1956 Parade crowd

Haha, funny thing that I did hear on the radio the day after Thanksgiving was that all the confetti strewn over Times Square was made up of shredded New York Police Department documents; the catch being that the confetti wasn't shredded properly and so confidential info was leaked all over the city.  Whoops.  Full story here.

Lady Gaga: Alejandro

One Saturday night before I went out I watched a couple Lady Gaga videos and was totally floored; Alejandro being one of the most racy of them all. I think she has a couple things going for her; her music can not stand on it's own however, where I think she becomes interesting is in her whole aesthetic.  Lady Gaga's videos are shocking-I think of my younger sister (who's only 12) and am floored that she loves these things.  My man Conner says that I need to get over myself and remember Madonna videos from the 90's.  He says that here you have a moderately attractive lady with a killer body who makes super suggestive videos for music that is mediocre at best.  He presents the video Alejandro as evidence and likens it to Like A Prayer; sex, religion, say no more, say no more.

Radiolab: Colors

Radiolab is one of my favorite elements to my Sunday morning coffee, as it airs on the local public radio right around the time I finally drag myself out of bed.  Their episode on Colors boggled the mind and I had to repost it here.


picture via This Burgess

Babiekins Magazine

Even though the online magazine Babiekins has been around for several years, it's new to me and it's so freaking cute!  I love their tagline--For The Trendsetting Child--and I can even see some of the featured products fitting in nicely with my home decor.  All of the issues can be viewed online here.

F1 in Austin

It's finally happened; the very first F1 race is on this weekend in Austin.  After years of quiet murmuring, we're all bracing for the amount of people who are anticipated to arrive in town for this event.  Apparently there are going to be some super, super rich folks helicoptering around and 6 blocks of downtown have been closed to traffic for a three day Austin Fan Fest (music and food to the new racetrack that'll be in our back yard); Aerosmith being one of the headliners this weekend.  While the F1 mess has been in Europe for quite some time, this is the first track to be built in America (called Circuit of the Americas); word on the street is that this is like Nascar for the Elite crowd--a comparison that the F1 folks would most likely balk at but was I could relate to since I'm from Nascar country.  Our new house is just north of the track and as a result I'll be parking my car at the house biking it all weekend.

Let the races begin!

 

posters by PJ Tierney

Entertainment Designer: Harald Belker

I read this article in the May 2012 issue of 20/20 trade journal at work and I found it interesting to learn how a guy can go from being a car designer, to an entertainment designer, to an eyewear designer.  Of course, it all makes sense how each are linked but I still find it interesting nonetheless.  Harald Belker.

Hot Fun On A Saturday Night

I'm still getting used to the idea that I like staying home on a Saturday night.  Occasionally I'll start feeling guilty about my impending descent into the land of the lame and I'll make myself go out a bunch (I'm in the middle of one of these episodes right now).  However, this is how I spent a rather lovely Saturday night with Conner--sanding our refrigerator.  I've been drooling over getting our very own Smeg fridge to go along with our bonafide retro stove, but we're still saving up that $2000 to fix the foundation-not a Smeg.  Conner tried to make me feel better but sanding our existing fridge smooth so it would resemble the aforementioned Smeg...ahh, the mess you'll make for love right?

Quote by Ernest Hemingway

There's no one thing that's true.  It's all true.

By Ernest Hemingway

Quiet Solitude

via Modern Hepburn

The Paris Wife

I loved this book!  Must have finished it in a couple days time.  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.

Passing Away: Grandpa George

My Grandpa George passed away a couple months ago in Arizona and unfortunately Conner and I couldn't make it to his memorial.  Instead, we decided to have a "Grandpa Day" where we would do all the things that he used to like doing.  It took me a minute to come up with a list but in the process I started remembering stories about me and the Grandfolks that I haven't thought about in forever and made me feel closer to him than I have in the many years since I've moved half-way across the country.

To begin our day we got up early (not our favorite time to get up) and went on a "Grandpa Run"...you know, the slow plodding run where it seems faster to just walk and which one must begin with a steeply forward lean so that the legs must move in order to keep from falling down.  Now, Conner is not a runner and I have to confess that it was hilarious just watching him bouncing along.  Then we ate bagels and lox while we read the New York Times.

It was just such a lovely day and made me happy to think about Grandpa instead of feeling sad that he was gone--I think this is the beginning of a new tradition for us.

Jun Mitani

Super beautiful origami by computer science professor, Jun Mitani.  

 

 

The Common Pursuit

If I had been more focused as a young person--or become more focused by say, age 20, I would either have become either an industrial designer or a travel writer.  As it stands, I can tell you a lot about Art History, well at least I used to be able to;  that was my chosen path because it was simply something I was good at (remembering dates and names) and I could imagine myself as a gallery girl living in NYC and wearing stiletto heels-it seemed rather glamorous.

While I am probably never going to become an industrial designer, I still have both time and yearning to become a travel writer.  I read travel magazines (Afar being the best) and travel blogs all in the name of "research"--one must know what makes a successful travel article, right?  So this is one of the websites I read to keep that dream alive; The Common Pursuit handpicks some of the cooler places around the globe to rest one's weary feel while visiting exotic lands.

San Giorgio. Mykonos, Greece.

Charleston, South Carolina

My older brother is getting married in Charleston, South Carolina this weekend.  After much procrastination, Conner and I finally got our highly expensive plane tickets to attend (waiting till the last minute is a vicious, vicious malady we both suffer from at times).  The funny thing is that my brother is Jewish (step-brother) and his wife-to-be's family is from the Middle East.  Now the clincher is that her family doesn't know that my brother is Jewish and they are not to know until many years in the future.  The thing is that my step-father's side of the family look super Jewish!  There's no way around it.  And I just think this is a perfect recipe for disaster.

Despite that soap opera looming on the horizon, I'm looking forward to going back to the East Coast for a minute and hanging out by the ocean; it's been far too long since I've been.  I found this nifty New York Times article, 36 Hours in Charleston, to help us catch all the best of Charleston in between wedding festivities.

1) The Charleston Grill- a place to go have a quite martini and listen to some southern Jazz while we have some down time between the ceremony and reception.

2) Visit Magar Hatworks- mainly for eye candy since Austin is too hot to actually purchase a hat to wear here.  I mean, doesn't that picture above make it look dreamy?  I've got to go.

 3) Stop by Wildflour Pastry- because apparently Sundays are designated Sticky Bun Sundays and I plan to you know, ...when in Rome...