charming things: grain rings.
{ from time to time i run across charming things that i like to share. this is part of the collection. }
Grain rings.
not, you know, actual grain grain, although i find big heaping barrels of grain rather lovely. but these:
these little rings are made from reclaimed electrical wire, and i love the punches of color they add. i’m so used to seeing only metals on my fingers, so this would be a nice change.
$19 from Grain Design.
christmas decor by carol(s).
i love seeing how people decorate their home for christmas–why they chose this ornament or that, what they put on the mantle and tables, if they eschew all decorations or make their house look like hobby lobby circa november 30th threw up nog-Flavored decor on every surface. you know, festive things like that.
so, i thought i’d give you a little tour of our christmas decor around the old apartment-homestead-slash-fixer-design-and-sugar-cookie-making-headquarters, subconsciously inspired (mostly) by carols.
we also got one of our christmas gifts early — our first DSLR (thanks to the in-laws and uncle sam who required some business-related tax writeoffs) — so i wanted to give it a whirl.
note: these are the very first shots we’ve taken with senor canon t3i (he came with an instruction manual en espanol, so perhaps he’s spanish?), so have mercy on me for any slightly out-of-focus or not-quite-lined-up whathaveyou on the photos; i have yet to become proficient.
*
this one deserves an extra little note — this was designed & hand-lettered on our dining room chalkboard wall by my favorite husband, the boy. what a gem.
*
hope your lights are extra twinkly this year.
{XYZ} PDQ, and one other observation.
do you remember that joke relic from elementary school, usually (and hopefully) followed by giggling and a hearty “psych!”, which although obnoxious, beat the alternative scenario: your zipper had been down all day.
quell horror.
anyway, this is the end of the alphabet postings for november, which we are wrapping up in december. this should be of no surprise to you, AT ALL. (you expected me to keep to a schedule? have we met?)
the end of things always make me remember the beginnings of things, what i’ve learned, what has happened. i think that’s pretty normal, right? in december the “best of” lists start pouring out, along with the memories and artifacts of the year, and how it all began–where were we a year ago?
the XYZ’s always make you remember the ABC’s.
and on that note of reflection and learning, here’s something i ran across a few weeks ago that made me think; despite mr. adams’ odd views (with which I don’t agree) on several things, it’s still interesting to think about. I’m deciding how much I feel this is true or not.
what do you think?
“You are what you learn. If all you know is how to be a gang member, that’s what you’ll be, at least until you learn something else. If you go to law school, you’ll see the world as a competition. If you study engineering, you’ll start to see the world as a complicated machine that needs tweaking. A person changes at a fundamental level as he or she merges with a particular field of knowledge. If you don’t like who you are, you have the option of learning until you become someone else. There’s almost nothing you can’t learn your way out of. Life is like a jail with an unlocked, heavy door. You’re free the minute you realize the door will open if you simply lean into it.”
-Scott Adams on Dilbert.com [via Mighty Girl]
{W} Wrapping (it up).
Have you ever heard the phrase “pretty as a package”?
I have no idea what the origin of this idiom is, and Google has failed me so far, but the only way this idiom makes sense is to assume that at some point packages were, in fact, pretty.
And I mean, pretty pretty. Thoughtful pretty. Not thrown into a gift bag printed by someone else and tossed in with some tissue paper while in the front seat of the Walgreens parking lot 10 minutes before the occasion pretty.
Ahem.
LIKE YOU HAVEN’T DONE THAT.
To be honest, I think I started really noticing the packaging of things at the same time I started to be more thoughtful about the gifts I was giving. This isn’t easy, thoughtfulness, but maybe that’s why I like pretty packaging — it’s visual thoughtfulness.
What a lovely idea.
I am by no means the best gift-wrapper-packager, but I just…loveitsomuch. It’s on my life list (create beautiful things) and it appeals to the design side of my brain.
This was last Christmas for my family, with help from my graphic-designer husband:
I was just about to write “this takes no time at all”, to implore you to get right on your pretty-packaging way…except, it’s not true. It doesn’t take a crazy amount of time, but truthfully — thoughtfulness in any manner takes time, but for me, this is time well spent. That’s just what I like.
This was $3 wrapping paper from Walgreens (apparently Walgreens and I have some kind of weird cosmic giftwrap connection) with $1 mini-crayon boxes and a vintage coloring book picture scanned in and printed on cardstock.
Here’s Christmas for the boy last year:
Obviously this was wrapped in newspaper, tied with grey yarn and adorned with number tags that I found somewhere on the internet machine and printed out on cardstock that I bought at Office Depot.
I’m all kinds of fancy, yo.
I forget where I found the template for the tags, but if you google things like “gift tag template” you’ll find some interesting stuff. If you don’t have time to wade through google-y piles of junk, though, just read blogs like Sally Shim’s and How About Orange, and they’ll hook you up with all sorts of great ideas and templates, respectively.
Here’s this year for the boy (and a little glimpse of our charlie brown tree):
And for the family, some lovely wrapping from the fine folks at Design Army at the Felt & Wire Shop:
with a little embellishment ala a free font that I cut out of other wrapping paper &
some grey yarn from my sister Amy
and turning paper into a little yarn-sewn envelope, which should be very easy
for my 5-year old niece to open
I couldn’t decide between their DoReMi & Wrap In Style collections, so I got both. And poking around that site made me very jealous for more, but I restrained myself. Of course, I’ll repurpose a lot of the leftover wrapping paper throughout the year, which is the genius part of having Christmas paper that’s not too Christmas-y.
I could go on and on, but I have to go wrap presents now.
{U} UV Rays.
it’s the last day of november, which means i am officially only 4 days behind of my posting-every-day-or-bust schedule.
correction: 5 days behind, because somehow i missed the letter H.
[update: correction to the correction--i found H. right on my screen, between G and I, hidden SO WELL.--s.]
but, i can’t neglect the rest of the alphabet, so we press on.
perhaps we’ll have to rename it National Blog Posting Month And Some More.
NaBloPoMo, meet NaBloPoMoAddSoMo.
catchy.
here is yet another Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys SuperMystery update of Epically Unimportant Proportions.
+ + + +
these are my favorite sunglasses of the moment. classic mid-century shape, dark enough to become a stranger, and tortoiseshell to go with everything.
i got them on vacation in chicago, at urban outfitters on state street for about 15 dollars. i actually was drawn to another pair (which i ended up getting as well), but the boy insisted that these were a good idea.
i should always listen to that boy.
i subsequently ended up wearing them every single day all summer long, until i promptly lost them in the abyss that is craig, colorado on our first trip up to grand junction.
for a week i wore other sunglasses, and although it was not the month of november, i was decidedly NOT THANKFUL for the sunglasses i already owned.
and in this grey cloud of first world problems, i came up with a truly american solution:
i had to re-buy them.
so i did.
(please tell me i’m not the only one who either re-buys identical items that they’ve lost/broken or buys multiple pairs of beloved jeans/glasses/shoes whenever possible? yes, i see that hand. and you, sir. thanks guys.)
so, this is my second-pair of first-favorite sunglasses.
i need to take them off now, though, because i learned that the only two people who wear sunglasses indoors are blind people and assholes.
and i’m not blind.
here’s to sunny days ahead.
{T} Thanksgiving, and solving crimes.
Hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving with wonderful food…and solved crimes.
If you’ve known me for approximately 1 day or sat on my green couch in my living room next to the television*, you’ll know that my favorite television show (probably of all time, and that’s saying a lot coming from someone who can’t name her top 5 anything with definitive answers) is the West Wing.
[*because I often use analogies or examples from the West Wing to communicate to people and because I own all 7 seasons which the boy and I watch nearly year-round--and that's not an exaggeration. the show is that good.]
So, as we do every year, we celebrate thanksgiving with the following:
1. actually giving thanks–which, if we’re being honest, requires me to think about what my life could look like in an alternative universe without divine providence and blessing. without this imagination of a sadly-ended choose-your-own-adventure-life, i honestly don’t feel thankful for my current life, even if i say/write the words “i’m thankful”. i find that true thankfulness requires a bit more…meditation on what that actually means. is that odd?
2. the requisite food/family–your standard thanksgiving fare plus one odd dish called “slimy green stuff” that my husband loves and i revile. (it involves pistachio pudding, nuts, and other stuff not worth mentioning, because once i heard the first ingredient i was done.) the family varies, depending on if we go up to craig (which we have the last 3 years out of 4) or stay in town with my family. i missed my sister’s first hosting of thanksgiving, which was sad, but got to spend time with troy’s family in craig.
3. the west wing episodes about thanksgiving–our favorites include the episodes with the butterball hotline, pardoning the turkeys, and (as you see above) rob lowe’s idea for a new thanksgiving action-adventure series.
I’m curious — what are your traditions, or do you have any?
Happy Thanksgiving weekend, all.
{S} Snapshots.
here is where we’ve been spending our days and years.
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the boy and i went on a date to a local tapas restaurant in old colorado city called the tapateria.
i like the idea of things being a ‘teria’ (see: other failed restaurant ideas).
they give you a big picture menu of all of your tapas options, and you proceed to order about 20 different things, all of them tasty.
the company was particularly delightful.
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another Flamingo fashion post from today (named after my amazing mirror pose, yes?), this time with more chartreuse courtesy of the puffy puffy vest my father recently gifted me. my torso has never been so warm in my life.
also, i LOVE me some chartreuse.
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if someone walked into my brother & sister-in-law’s kitchen at 3:35pm on thursday of last week, they would have seen one 30-year-old babysitter with a banana in one hand, an iphone in the other for texting the parents to ascertain the magic cure for the fussy baby, and her knee wedged against the tray of the high chair to keep it in place because she couldn’t figure out the child-lock mechanism while holding a baby who had been crying for approximately 9,000 years the last half hour.
turns out, the magic cure was FEED THE HUNGRY KID.
bananas for the win.
(sorry tucker + julie for all the texts.)
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this was the scene in our apartment this week, midway through a current creative project for our local ad-fed group for our company. you can follow the adventures of Mog (the mug-dog) here, if that’s what you’re into.
otherwise, i’ll keep you posted here soon enough.
two observations:
we must look really strange to the neighbors who walk by our apartment window.
i strangely feel like i’m one step closer to getting a dog.
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i made potato-leek soup. it was tasty. leeks are like onions. our house smelled oniony for days.
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i’ve been going through our pictures from grand junction (we’ve been caring for my mother-in-law who had treatments for brain cancer at the regional center there) to put in an album for her.
when we were driving around we stumbled on this general store that she remembered from years ago, in the middle of nowhere.
it was as charming as you’re picturing, and i was wishing that i could shop there regularly.
but not enough to actually move out in the middle of nowhere.
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beer me some milk with my dessert, please.
{at my nephew’s 3rd birthday party}
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The (R)oastaurant.
{bad idea jeans, SNL: “Sport the jeans that scream ‘it’s a bad idea!}
When we were kids, my older-by-one-year-and-two-days brother Tucker and I occasionally collaborated on Really Fantastic Ideas (trademark). One of our RFI involved ridiculous brilliant ideas for opening a restaurant when we got older.
We figured that we would expand on the idea of restaurants focusing one one general cuisine, and have them instead focus on only one type of food. Hey, it works for ice cream, right?
Here were the names of the restaurants we came up with, and the food focus concept should be (painfully) obvious:
Are You For Cereal?
The Roastaurant
And, my absolute favorite:
The Loafeteria
My brother and I don’t, in fact, own or operate a restaurant now that we are adults,
so to the food-enjoying public: you’re welcome for that.
{Q} questions + answers, for a monday morning.
{christmas presents for the boy | december 2011}
What are you…
Obsessing over: Both where we want to go with our business next year and how I’m going to wrap Christmas presents this year. I tend to like packaging way, way too much for a healthy person a lot, so it requires thoughtful consideration.
Working on: Designing and producing a Christmas/New Years present for some of our clients. I’m super excited and want it to turn out really well.
Thinking about: How to cook all of the squash we got in our CSA. Our CSA is great, but in the winter it’s like squashapplapalooza. Also wondering when I will outgrow being intimidated by people I perceive to be way more cool than I can even think about being.
Anticipating: A dinner party that I’m planning that won’t be for two months. And lots of pumpkin pie this weekend. I fully intend on “gobbling until I’m wobbling.”
Listening to: The Fuel/Friends Autumn Mix 2011: Nothing Gold Can Stay. It’s free and you should download it immediately, if not sooner. And if you like great music you’ve never heard of and some illustrative writing, bookmark this blog to put in your reading rotation. Seriously. Also in heavy rotation at the Fixer Design offices: Feist’s Metals, Florence + the Machine Ceremonials.
{ don’t you love this virtual cover for the mix? designed by ryan hollingsworth for fuel/friends }
Drinking: Plain, unsweetened, decaf iced tea. My favorite, year-round. Also, because it’s come up several times this past week: No, I seriously don’t like coffee. I have never liked it. In anything. Even when it’s 90% sugar, I taste something and think “hmm, that sugar was sweet, but what’s that bitter taste happening in my mouth?” It did not change when I lived in Seattle, and it did not change when I was a first year teacher, and the outlook looks grim. Hear that, former boss who gifted me a giant Starbucks gift basket after I worked for you for four years? I. don’t. like. it.
Wishing: I had equal parts laser-like focus + patience for the things I have to do and that I could create all of the things in my head with my own skills and hands.
what are you obsessing over, working on, thinking about, anticipating, listening to, drinking or wishing?
do tell me in the comments…
{P} problematic words.
i’ve noticed lately that several words are, shall we say, conspicuously overrepresented in my vocabulary.
and by present, i mean WAY overused. to the point of obnoxious.
but i can’t stop saying them.
one word that i find myself almost daily is the word problematic, which just means that whatever it is that i’m describing as problematic has become a problem.
i like it because it is efficient, using one word to take the place of four.
but i use it ALL THE TIME.
it’s become, well, problematic.
i mean, it’s not to the rachel zoe level with the word literally, and at least i use my words correctly. [side note: if you’ve never watched the rachel zoe project, it is a hot mess of crazy, which i find entertaining. in our nearly 5 years of being together, rachel zoe’s show on bravo is the only one that the boy has made me turn off because of how obnoxious she is, and this is coming from someone who has endured an entire ice road truckers marathon.)
but still.
here are the others that probably need to take a hiatus from my everyday speech:
funsies (like, let’s do this for the heck of it–which is ridiculous because it’s not even a real word, people.)
ridiculous
ubiquitous
grody
problematic (it’s seriously bad, so i listed it twice.)
seriously
what are your overused words? anything that makes you sick as it’s coming out of your mouth but you can’t stop? words that you love, but your significant other hates? is there an anonymous group or 12 steps to do?
do tell.
