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