triple westie madness

Charlie; BB; Max

Westie craziness! My mom's friend brought over her Westie Charlie to play two days this week! If my boyfriend ends up getting a Westie down in San Diego, there will be quadruple Westie power...!

Salt (2010)

Entertaining! But ridiculous and ultimately forgettable. Let's face it, I just wanted to watch Angelina kick ass onscreen again, but for badassery with ridiculousness that's forgivable I'll stick with the first Tomb Raider. Sadly, Mr. & Mrs. Smith is more memorable and slightly better than Salt. This isn't much of a review at all, sorry, but if I started, I would give it all away.

the santa monica flea market

Went to the Santa Monica flea with my sister and her boyfriend, my mom, and my boyfriend. We didn't see much to buy but we brought our dogs! And I scored a sweet table for my kitchen this fall for thirty bucks. So even though it was a little disappointing overall, it wasn't a complete disappointment.

the little things

On a day to day basis I blog about little things - purchases, flowers that catch my eye, snippets of an outing. Overall they aren't such a big deal, but for a day or two they are. Then I go on - I keep seeing new flowers, keep finding and reporting on amusing things. Such is life, all the little things are what build the bigger picture, and oftentimes the little things make me happy!

For the past few weeks I've unconsciously been focusing on little things that take me backward instead of forward. Paranoia at having lost or ruined friendships, fear of having acted in a manner that offended someone, anxiety at not being social enough with certain people. I have unwittingly been stressing myself out at anything and everything, but with no outlet, grind my teeth in my sleep and have anxious dreams. But a recent series of events - spending a day with my boyfriend at a beach house, seeing a good old friend and just letting things flow naturally, walking my dogs with my sister and talking at length, has restored an inner peace that I always need to keep in check. Because I'm so details-oriented I tend to freak out very easily, so a part of me has to get metaphysical and keep checking in with the big picture.

Perhaps my long break from school has gotten me restless, so maybe I'm looking to find ways to artificially create anxiety, but that is so unhealthy! I don't know why I am this way, but being positive, being around people with good attitudes and being creative relieves this gross weight! I have to stay on track and fight the pettiness and ridiculosity!

keeping cool

I wore these hand-woven, pantaloons-shorts all day yesterday as I worked on my quilt yesterday and romped around in the yard in the evening. The Queen Anne's lace is flourishing in the front yard and I spent some time admiring it even though the heat was unforgiving as the afternoon melted into evening. I went back inside to sew, but then found distraction again in the vintage Ball Mason half-pint jar I found at the Salvation Army earlier that day. At $0.89 I could not resist. Today I worked from 5-12 and then went swimming with my sister! With a pool you can conquer the summertime heat.

the sun's last breath

These photos don't do yesterday's sunset much justice. I need to figure out how to safely get up on my roof to get better shots of the sky. I can get lost in clouds like these; when I was little I imagined they were the brains of intelligent, magical beings going up into the cosmos to get recycled and born into new super-smart magical beings again. Weird kid, but I now realize that I formed half of my imagination from zoning out in nature.

my little dumpling

This afternoon as I laid out my t-shirt quilt blocks to figure out a final arrangement, Max came over and wouldn't move, so I merely plopped it onto him. He stood up with the block still draped over him, then laid down again and waited patiently for me to remove it. What a sweet little thing, not tearing it off and complaining. Although I suspect these dogs love the feeling of jersey - there has been many a time we have found them nesting on a pile of t-shirts on the floor, happy as clams. How great it must be to be a dog.

wednesday means $.99 tacos

Tacos Baja for lunch today with my sister and her boyfriend! I got three tacos and a horchata, my sister got two tacos and a jamaica, and her bf got four tacos with ice-cold water. Great food on a hot day equaled crazy food coma.

things I like III

1. Seven additions to my existing glass insulator collection (6 of which I got for a dollar each), which I now deem complete.
2. Woven anythings, particularly in leather.
3. Ken Burn's 'The Civil War.' Informative, interesting, and a well-done series!

Tonari No Totoro (1988)

My sister and I watched this movie a lot when we were kids. The VHS copy we had was in Japanese so we never really understood what characters were actually saying, so instead had to follow the story through what we could SEE. It worked out. But our memory of the movie was both always foggy and we could only remember bits and pieces of it. Watching it together today 'restored bits of our childhood' as my sister said. I really prefer it in Japanese though, as the Disney, English-dubbed version really butchered the pronunciation of the Japanese names, especially Totoro (TOH-toh-roh, not Toe-toe-ROW), which kind of killed it for me. Still, so good. I have yet to watch a film by Hayao Miyazaki that I do not enjoy/love.

sushi at home

Last Thursday my mom, my sister and my boyfriend prepared an amazing sushi feast for lunch! Unfortunately I was out of commission, conked out on the couch after working a 4 AM shift that day. Yeah I know, weak. I felt guilty and like the most spoiled thing ever when I awoke and stumbled into the dining room to see bowls of piping hot odeng, two platters heaped each of veggies and sea-meat, and sheets of nori. We had tako (octopus), sake (salmon), maguro (tuna), toro (fatty tuna), kani kama (imitation crab) and uni (sea urchin). Oh no, I'm getting hungry again. This was a great day because I had been craving sushi for weeks beforehand, and making it with family and boyfriend (and sister's boyfriend!) was such a fun and fulfilling experience. Food is better when you have it with loved ones.

mix/match

I've been 'shopping the closet' if you will - having acquired a good amount of thrifted goods and hand-me-overs recently I'm trying to see what would go with the other things I have. I had fun mixing patterns together as well as textures and shooting these as color/pattern blocks rather than as real outfits. At this point I don't think I'd wear any of these outside the house which is why I'm experimenting in the safety of my room.

summer yields the best flowers

Well spring/summer to be fair. But seconds after reassessing that comment I realize I like all kinds of flowers in any season.

fear not, I approach donning shark socks!

Now I have TWO pairs of shark socks! The first one is cooler, I will show them another time. I think these are supposed to be for boys like 12-14 years old but who cares they fit me! And when I wear them my day instantly becomes a notch above fantastic.

Things like this ensure that even as a 21, almost 22 year-old lady, I am still deeply in touch with my inner child. It's good and bad. Observing people forcing maturity upon themselves in awkward ways, either with a cheesy fake persona or ill-fitting clothing is so disheartening. But I think I overcompensate in my retaliation by being too childish. As long as I am aware of it though I don't think it can be that self-destructive.

Harvey Pekar (1939-2010)