Bluebury

Blueberries were on sale this week - besides parfaits (with vanilla yogurt and lowfat granola - yum!) I have been doing a little baking too. "You'll eat a muffin - you'll eat it and like it..."



Photographie

Photo by Catie

Q&A

This question came up on a job application: Please describe yourself as a reader and how you came to be one.
I have always loved reading. My parents, both teachers, read to me all the time until I learned to read on the kitchen floor, making words with the hundreds of letter squares my grandma made out of cut-up cereal boxes. During the blazing Utah summers my sisters and I would hurry to our local library, a historic building that had air-conditioning and the biggest, comfiest chairs ever where we would lose ourselves in stacks of books. I have never been able to pick a favorite book, and have trouble even narrowing it down to a favorite genre. I read everything from non-fiction to science fiction, from cookbooks to Russian literature. Books have the power to pull us into exotic or even mundane scenarios where we participate as silent witnesses to a panorama of humanity unfolding. Reading is magic and chaos neatly pressed between two covers. I love it.

Not sure why

...but I am loving this look. Since I am now a crochet fanatic, I think I'm going to try and make some

From here

Weird.

I have a lot of weird food habits. My friend encouraged me to compile a list, and I hadn't realized just how many there are.

• Sauce. Spaghetti sauce, bbq sauce, honey mustard, salsa, you name a sauce I will use 10 times as much of it as normal people. I love to drown food in sauce.
• Tofu. Specifically, tofu on pizza, jazzed up with fun spices like paprika and garlic and oregano and then smothered with sauce (see above), spinach, and cheese (farther below). Tofu-haters of the world can suck it.
• Top layers. I only like the top layer of movie theater popcorn (it has the most butter!). Also, the top layer of a newly-opened carton of ice cream tastes absolutely amazing.
• Seeds. Hate them. Will not touch seeded grapes or watermelon - despite my love of both fruits I can only handle seedless. Dislike strawberry seeds as well, but only in things like ice cream and jam.
• Plain. Plain hominy and plain beans, straight from the can. Plain toast. Plain deli turkey and bread.
• Pickles. I get the most intense random pickle cravings; my strongest recurring food craving by far. Stupid Snooki for making pickle-loving so cliche.  
• Salt. I almost never put salt on anything.
• Meat. EW to: veins/skin/fatty parts/stringy parts/slimy parts/weird colored parts/parts that look too much like muscle. So that basically leaves me with well-done chicken breast that has been carefully autopsied for all of the EW factors.
• Cheese. Except stinky cheese. Mmm.
• Bananas. I won't eat the bottom end, only the top.
• Crust. If it's good bread or pizza or pie, I always save the best for last.
• Gross. Living on my own I don't eat peanut butter or eggs, simply because I can't stand washing dishes that have involved either. As a matter of fact, I really hate all dishes in general (luckily every guy I've dated thus far happily does dishes - it's now a prerequisite).
• M&Ms. Red, blue, and orange only, eaten in groups of three (1 of each color).
• Lime. In a 50/50 mixture of Dr. Pepper and Diet Coke.
• Nuts. I despise nuts in brownies and ice cream. Peanuts are only good for peanut butter, almonds must be blanched, and pecans must be sugar coated aka pralines. Nope, I'm not picky at all.
• Foreign objects. Mostly hairs, but obscure things end up in my food so frequently that I'm no longer shocked. 12" strings, bugs, bandaids....

On that delicious note, dinner time! Ha.

Introducing!

Bee's blog! http://beesbeesknees.blogspot.com/ by Courtney and myself (Lu&Lolly Blog Designs). Check it.

What I've....

...been playing with: H&M styling fun

...been doing: lots of this (bed/movie aka 'lazy lizard' time)

....been scared of: have you seen this troll?



10 Things the East Coast Has Taught Me

1. Coat hoods are seriously underrated. I remember not wearing one in high school because it wasn't cool. What a dummy.
2. Cars are seriously overrated. Public transportation can be the shizzz.
3. Big city people don't always live up to their stereotypes - just as Utahns don't always.
4. Sometimes big city people totally do live up to their stereotypes. And sometimes I still say 'melk' instead of 'milk.'
5. From the awesome energy and endless activity of NYC to the quaintness of New England waterfront towns to the character and history of Boston - never a dull moment.
6. I took having a mountainous landscape for granted.
7. Humidity = worst invention ever. And the fact that it makes summer and winter more miserable.
8. Autumn is my new favorite season.
9. New Yorkers and Bostonians are not being snobbish - their pizza really is 10000x better.
10. Their pizza gives me heartburn but "the rewards for those who persevere far exceed the pain that must precede the victory."

Photog love

Check this out. Absolutely adore her work! And her name.

Some stuff

A tender moment with the gibbon, my favorite animal at Hogle Zoo

Alta

Also this past week: watching scary movies with Courtney and jumping at all the scary parts, lunch with Brittany, hanging out with my BGF Ryan, going out with Julie and Alex, loukomades at church, family dinners, crocheting (I made a scarf!), babysitting, and lots of reading. Only one week left in UT! ... and then school again. Mer.

NYE

Let's face it, New Year's Eve is the most overrated holiday by far. I have a killer dress though and there's no way I'm wasting it, but a fun NYE is hard to come by. 2010 was a 'meh' year; the first 66% of it was amazing and full of the kinds of changes and adventures I was looking for. The last part of 2010 has left me longining for 2011 to hurry up and get here because I can't take it anymore, I need a new year to toast to. To quote dear Anne Shirley/L.M. Montgomery, "Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it." I hope tomorrow marks the beginning of a new year with a bright new outlook. Cheers, auld lang syne, happy new year.

Lately

Lately I am loving:
-Snow (since I haven't had to drive in it and am looking forward to skiing after the holiday rush)
-Hot tubbing, despite 10 degree nighttime temperatures
-Playing 20 questions while hot tubbing
-Couch time with my BFF
-The mtv show 'My Life as Liz', as I watched the entire first season with BFF during couch time
-Cuddle buddies (boy ones!)

-Remembering about Zoobilee Zoo - and wondering how I was not majorly creeped out

Models.

Look! We are models. Keala is too legit to quit. I will post some more when we receive them :)

 



Guilty pleasure

Courtney and Bee and I went to see "Easy A" last night. First off, I love Connie who sold us our tickets. She thought we were pretty great too, like when Bee started complaining about the 'cold' and I snapped "Oh, SO sorry, California." Anyway. Stellar movie. By stellar I mean dumb funny. I want to be the parents in that movie when I grow up. I know that makes none sense (yes none sense - long story) but watch it and you will want to be them too. Also, we are planning on seeing "You Again" on Monday ($.75 movies!!! I love Utah for that!). Both very uncultured, cheesy, and in the case of "You Again" seemingly ridiculous movies, but hey. Every now and then won't hurt you.

Hummus

I read about this hummus place here and not only am I craving some chickpeas, but I am intrigued by the varieties they offer; it's called Mimi's, and it's in Brooklyn. I see a trip there in my very near future.

Mimi's Hummus
1209 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn NY 11218

Movies

I have been feeling under the weather lately. Luckily, I have my go-to movies! I can watch these any time, but I especially like them when I'm sick/in bad mood/bored:
Jane Austen movies (especially Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth, Persuasion, Emma)
The Young Victoria
The Sound of Music/Brigadoon/Mama Mia/any musical on film
The Little Mermaid
Any of the HP movies
What a Girl Wants
Charade
Sweet Home Alabama
The Scarlet Pimpernel

The tiniest s'more

My apartment!

 

Don't even worry that I've lived here for almost 4 months and still hadn't really unpacked until...today. But at least it's clean since I am leaving next week and followed my mom's rule of pre-vacation cleaning.

Etsy

I love Etsy. It is a source of crafting inspriation (sometimes I find fun items to make on my own) but also a great gift center! I did most of my Christmas shopping here this year. Some of the best-loved gifts I have ever given have been of Etsy origin - such as a silkscreened print of a tapir on the page of a vintage Russian book I had specially made for WL, the original collage piece I found for Amanda, and the hair flowers for Courtney -

I really liked two of the recent Etsy sellers I worked with - Jim, a 73-year old jewelry maker and self-proclaimed hippie who is proud of his 100% positive feedback rating and wrote "Thanks Cathy!" in a little note included with my purchase, and Ms. Mary Maples of Ireland from whom I got the cutest vintage postcards. I'd tell you more about my Etsy purchases but.....that is going to have to wait until after Christmas!

My heart is an old tin can

With a string that leads to the palm of your hand

-Danielle Doyle,  My Bird

What I've....

1. ...decided: I wish I still had WL's shapka at my disposal. It was too big so it slipped down and I couldn't see when I wore it, but my head has never been so warm...

2. ...just discovered: HA. Photos from here captioned:

Taking turns being Harry Potter and a Demeantor

Fine art reproduction

3. ...realized: I am done with classes for the semester.

Where I will be in a week:

Utah.

Brrr.

Anderson Bridge, Harvard University 7 Dec. 2010

It was a

RIDICULOUSLY

cold, cold day in Boston. Again.

(Sadly this is not the coldest the east coast has to offer...joy)

It is also finals week, and I am out of brainpower.

Finals = fueled by hot cocoa.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom. 

If this be error and upon me proved, 

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
-Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare

(Thanks to Shane)

Smile
As you find a rhythm
Working you, slow mile by mile,
Into your proper haunt.

~Seamus Heaney

Watch this.

Yay!!

My BFF is moving to New York in January because she is amazing and got in with one of the top ten public relations firms in the nation. Yup. And I'm HER BEST FRIEND! So lucky!!! (Just a little bit jealous is all.) This is the greatest development ever for a number of reasons:

1. She will only be a few hours away!
2. We can visit each other on weekends!
3. If I get a summer job/internship in New York we can be roomies!
4. We are a great shopping tag team! And NYC shopping is the best!
5. A year from now I'll be able to join her, living in our favorite city!

Sorry for all the !!s, this is just the best news I've had in while :)

 

All that is gold does not glitter; 

not all those that wander are lost.

-J.R.R. Tolkien

Success is how high you bounce 

when you hit the bottom

-General George S. Patton

Picaresque

Why the url? I love the word picaresque (picaresco in Spanish). Check it:

1. Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers.
2. Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society.
3. (Unofficial definition) Story of my life.