reflections on 2009.

what a great year. if i made a pros and cons list for 2009, the cons list would be extremely short (but it would definitely include the time i saw the informant). i could write a book on the pros, however, but this year wasn't good all on it's own... it was a spectacular year because i am surrounded by wonderful friends. so thanks, friends (you know who you are). you are a hot and sassy bunch of bfaces, and i would do anything for you.

{via inside the loop}

FINALLY.

BEST WISHES to all as you celebrate today!! i hope this pinnacle of the longest season in the world brings you joy and happiness. may all your wildest dreams come true in 2010.love, kristina

{image via liz ham}

thank heavens it's almost christmas.

i've been DYING to share this:

merry christmas, happy hanukkah, joyous kwanzaa, or glad winter tidings (jehovah's witnesses)!

{image via the best etsy store EVER, pampered whiskers}

what the WHAT: maeby edition

dear sweet baby jesus in a manger, thank you for sending THIS:

it's an all-grown-up Maeby Fünke (aka alia shawkat) from the best television program ever, arrested development. if you have not seen that show, i suggest you quit monkeying around, get your buns over to a best buy and fix it. three seasons of awesome is being made into the arrested development movie for 2011. to make matters better, alia's recreating one of the most magical movie scenes on earth, the rap battle from the 1980 classic, TEEN WITCH. and i think we all know how much i love teen witch...

you can try until you're blue

i will make a fool of you

TOP THAT.

{via dlisted}

ps-TOP THAT.

american fashion family tree.

you know what i could just EAT? these dresses. (louis vuitton resort 2010 by marc jacobs)(michael kors spring 2010)(proenza schouler pre-spring 2010)

it's hard not to love michael kors as a person (uh, project runway), but he's also one of my favorite designers, as is mr. marc jacobs. if i had a nickel for every time i ripped one of those weird marc jacob ads out of a magazine to mail to a friend, well, i'd have a giant sack of nickels. however, i've been especially jonesing for proenza schouler of late. hermione granger has been prancing around in their shit since june (lucky you, emma watson) so p.s. got on my radar in a big way. now, i may be tardy to the party on my new fashion love, but it bears repeating that proenza schouler was founded by lazaro hernandez and jack mccollough, who interned at michael kors and marc jacobs, respectively. WHICH EXPLAINS EVERYTHING.

so thanks, hermione. you were great as a dirty little mudblood, but you're even better now.and while we're at it, proenza schouler, i'll take one of these:
and one of these:

free pictures.

how about a show of hands for those of you familiar with wiki images? no? i think i read about it on a message board while i was searching for a drawing of a donkey. (those of you who have already seen our wedding save-the-dates know what i'm talking about.) anyways, as far as i know, wiki images are pictures in the public domain. in a recent wiki image search for encyclopedia drawings, i found these beauties. i'm not sure where i'll use them, but they're going in my image library for now and may turn up in a future project.

winter hat!

i recently discovered our ski trip in park city coincides with SUNDANCE. you know, the film festival? so i guess skiing will be out of the question, because i don't need anything cutting into my celebrity stalking time. what i do need, however, is this hat. stay warm and get noticed at the same time? yes, please.

i'm sorry to admit that i have no idea where this image originated.

squirrels.

i don't want to go to work today, but i did find this picture, so i guess the day isn't a total loss.

you're a corker, shannon. what a corker you are.

i have a habit of saving wine corks. in my head, it's still 1992 and i'm watching far and away thinking that tom cruise is SO. HANDSOME. and i live in a tuscan house where decorating with wine corks is a great and modern idea. bad news, folks: tom cruise is a level-seven weirdo and wine cork decor is not a good idea. so muster your strength and let's all let donate our corks to a WONDERFUL cause. if you are in the houston area, you can drop off your excess corks at SPECS and become a part of The Cork Project. (let's face it: you're headed there anyway to stock up on holiday booze. you learned your lesson at thanksgiving, right?) not only will your corks will be recycled, Specs will donate money for cancer research for every cork collected. i hate to state the obvious, but we're all going to get some sort of cancer eventually, so just look at it as paying it forward. find more information on the project, which has been ongoing since MAY for crying out loud, at specs online or here.

for the millions of loyal readers not in the houston area, you can still participate in cork recycling via TerraCycle or ReCork America. or do a google search for cork recycling in your area.

{via lauren w., the gal with a heart of gold}

the new year is upon us...

i might have to test out this number. you know, quality control for the new year's party. i can't be serving kool-aid.

pomegranate-champagne punch

ingredients

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 750-ml bottles chilled brut Champagne
• 1 1/2 cups white rum
• 1 1/4 cups pomegranate juice
• 1 large lemon, thinly sliced
• Pomegranate seeds
• Fresh mint leaves
• 1 ice block*

preparation

Bring 1/2 cup water and sugar to boil in small saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Simmer 5 minutes. Cool syrup completely.

Combine Champagne, rum, and pomegranate juice in punch bowl. Add enough syrup to sweeten to taste. Mix in lemon slices, pomegranate seeds, and mint leaves. Add ice block to bowl.

*ice block can be made by freezing water overnight in a pan, such as a fancy-shaped bundt pan.

{via east side bride}

hang ten.

dear utterly engaged magazine-

i enjoyed your coverage of laguna beach's casa surf project. i love a billabong sundress and beach cruiser as much as the next guy, but let's face it: i'm not nearly as interested in surfing as i am in the STUNNING use of erin adam's facet circles glass tile. or rather, the spot-on decision to use blue grout. meeee-ow. if i'm ever in the laguna beach area, you can bet your flip flops i'll be staying in suite 315 of the La Casa del Camino Hotel. (photo by bonnie tsang, design by pd&a design)

nice try, kid.

this was almost cute enough to make me think about someday having a child. but then i imagined all the time you must have spent practicing, you know, before you were (kind of) good and just making noise. i bet it was annoying for your mom. however, if someone comes up with a magic elixir that would make a baby extremely talented in the music department and an excellent golfer and a boy, well then. sign me up. maybe.

shopping cats.

today while doing some online shopping on one of my favorite websites (zappos, and yes, i've made it to VIP status), i received a message from a magical creature called SEARCH KITTY. it seems that whenever you've searched for something zappos cannot find, they employ SEARCH KITTY, who delivers the news in baby talk, from his adorable perch inside a shoe box, while making a few suggestions of other things you might like (based on past searches). if the everyone could start delivering messages via search kitty, i think we'd all be a little happier, don't you?

for those of you not able to see, the search kitty is relaying the following message:

Zappos Search Kitteh iz sorry! He hopez dis page will halp u find stuff maybe jus lil bit bettr!

which reminds me.... this isn't the first helpful cat i've met. miss sydney lynn, the cat daughter of my roommate audrey, was also a real wiz when it came to shopping assistance. i've located a letter sydney lynn wrote to one of the assholes i used to date, and her penmanship is impeccable.

it goes without saying that i haven't had much to write about for a few days. not that this isn't worth reading... because if you can't find something funny about the fact that audrey and i pretended to be her cat and wrote a letter to someone i was dating, or the fact that i have obviously saved this letter for over four years, then i'm not sure you're going to like my blog.

if y'all wanna party like we do; if y'all wanna party like us...

aside from my duties as a common-law wife and interior designer extraordinaire, i'm also planning a wedding that will take place in austin next october. brad and i have been engaged since may, so my intention was to get everything done prior to february, and then spend the remaining nine months perfecting my bulimia and tanning booth routine... but it's not really going down that quickly. the save the dates? should have gone out about a month ago, but now i'm just shooting for any time before january.

which is why it gives me DISTINCT pleasure to inform you that we've got our music situation locked down. almost. i did mail the deposit check, so unless the USPS really cocks it up, our deposit should arrive in a few days. for any of you that are on the fence about what shoes you should wear to my wedding, plan to wear your most comfortable dancing flats. we've hired a person called THE HUMAN JUKEBOX.the human jukebox also goes by michael antonia (but you should totally just call him 'human jukebox', like i do) and is available for weddings and parties nationwide. he didn't even blink when i asked if he'd travel for our wedding (the h.j. lives in los angeles). so should you want a preview of what musical ear-crack sounds like, you can check out a long mix here. i have to warn you though, it gets SPICY about half-way through. house of pain and dolly parton, played together? yes please.

{via 100 layer cake.}

christmas gifts to buy, dreamland edition.

my dad used to say (probably still says) that 'it doesn't cost anything to look' and, like most dads, he kind of new what he was talking about. so here are some things i'd be interested in owning (and maybe giving) if money grew on trees. also, i heard a rumor that brad reads my blog, so HINT HINT in the serger department.

coco mademoiselle perfume for women by chanel. and it's not just because every time i go to the store, they're sold out. it also smells as good as i look. (fyi, i look really, really good. all the time.)

toms shoes aira cordones. i've decided that i think toms shoes are adorable, after all, and not just charity slippers. move over, leggings. i'm hopping on the bandwagon.

brother serger. i've simplified the title, but basically, this is a type of sewing machine that is vital if you are kind of a lazy seamstress, like me. i think there is a newer model or fancier version of this, but this one is great for beginners (according to reviews, so if i get one, i will let you know).

crossley alarm clock radio. plus you can hook your ipod into it! i don't need one of these; i need two of these. his and hers. (but they'd both be mine. you know how it works.)

hunter original rain boots in navy. or in green. or both. because it never rains unless it pours, especially at acl this year, and boyohboy, were you screwed if you didn't have rain boots. (it should be noted that if you live in southern california, you do not need these boots.)

handmade wire basket. what goes in it? who cares? it. is. adorable.

gomez poster. one of the prettiest concert posters i've seen ever. it's a shame i wasn't at this concert, but i would totally break policy on the "no concert posters on my walls if we weren't at 'em" house rule. and, for those of you who have been living under a rock, GOMEZ IS AMAZING, and british, and they've been around foreeeeever, so you could submerge yourself into their sea of music. so that's a win, win, win for you.

bern bike helmet. safety first, ladies and gents, but let's face it: not looking like a moron and having helmet hair, CLOSE SECOND.

the lip slip lip balm. best lip balm in the world ever, and i'm pretty sure this is the balm in gilead that all those church hymns were referring to. also, i didn't want to be the one to say it, but when your lips are chapped, it hurts all of us.

tissue turtleneck long-sleeved tee. one in every color, STAT. post-haste. immediately. these things may as well be water due to how much i rely on them when it gets chilly.

paul f. tompkins-impersonal. if you haven't spit coffee into your steering wheel lately, BUY THIS. seriously. if you can listen to the peanut brittle bit and not crack a smile, you might be alan rickman. or dead on the inside.

beauchamping-united states letterpress. perfect for that ex-pat friend who needs to get her ass back stateside, pronto. also perfect for me, if i find a $300 bill laying in the street.

alright. i'm stopping now. i feel really, really greedy. it doesn't help that i watched, like, 4 episodes of HOARDERS today. if you're not a HOARDERS watcher, you should be. it's crazy, unstable people at their unmedicated finest.

friday's (romantic) blast from the past: top that.

in keeping with this quasi-romantic theme i've got going, i thought i'd share an oldie (but GOODIE) film clip. did i already mention how romantic it is? now, we all know that there are tons of fantastically terrible 80's movies out there, and this is no exception. to any young whipper-snappers that are taking an interest, the 80's were a different time, when the heartthrobs were just okay-looking, not the drop-dead gorgeous efron and lautner types that you've been spoiled with. so please join me in celebrating the 1989 masterpiece, Teen Witch. especially one scene in particular:

falling in love in paris.

i'm on some sort of odd romance kick, in addition to my paris kick. they kind of go hand in hand, so le deal with it. and yes, i realize this is an advertisement for google. but if you have no love for google, i'm not sure we can be friends. google's the best.

french fries and other delights.

i'm on a bit of a french kick (not to be confused with my life-long obsession with mcdonald's french fries).

other than really liking those new ysl parisienne ads (and the perfume), this current motivation is probably courtesy of a cup of jo, since she was blasting from or about france for a good part of fall (here and here and here). however it started, i've been jonesing of late (le jonesing, that is) for striped shirts,johnny depp-ish glasses, opaque tights of any color, and i've been wearing my hair like this all week. it's way easier than you think, so try it if you are le lazy or le running short on time (guilty of both).except i don't have bangs, which make me look like an idiot. pretty sure the secret to amazing bangs is to be zooey deschanel.

patting myself on the back. or, another one bites the dust.

lest you all think i'm a person who starts projects and never finishes them (i am), i thought you might like to see the finished ornament wreath that i was so gung-ho about here.

my color choice stemmed from availability of ornaments, plus i wanted to leave this up for new year's and wanted something a tad more DISCO. brad has named it the kwanzaa wreath, which of course means he'll be getting coal in his stocking. i should point out that it was very chilly last night, and RAINING, when i took these photos of our front door. so suck it, annie leibovitz. looks like you're not the only dedicated photographer after all.

(those spots in the photo are raindrops, picking up the flash). i should also point out that it took approximately seventeen trillion ornaments to make this wreath, and it still turned out a little bare in places, which is why i decided to use a SERIOUS bow. but my hoop was 20" in diameter, which i thought comparable to other wreaths i've made. i bought 80 normal-sized ornaments, and a box of 50 'assorted' small ornaments, and I USED THEM ALL. i did get the ornaments on pre-christmas clearance, and i already had the hoop and ribbon, so this still cost about half the usual wreath price. it was also pretty fast, so if you want to make one (cally, i'm talking to you), get yourself a truckload of ornaments. i feel like i should have taken more step-by-step photos of the process, but i didn't. sue me. i'm sure i never thought i'd finish it in the first place.

zonkie!

A zonkey (also known as zebrass, zebronkey, zeass, zeedonk, zedonk, zebadonk, zenkey, donbra, donbri, donkra, zebrinny, clive, zebrula, debra) is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. The generic name for crosses between zebras and horses or asses is zebroid or zebra mule. "Zonkey" is not the technically correct name for such a cross. The most commonly accepted terms are zebrinny, zebrula, and zedonk. Donkeys are closely related to zebras and both animals belong to the horse family. Zonkeys are very rare.

{via a cup of jo, wikipedia}