Friday Fun Day – 5/17/2013

Oh heyyyy Avon pink Escalade!

What I Learned

• The best laid plans can go awry…and can really bite you in the butt, even if you were the person who was on top of everything! Ugh. If anyone knows someone looking for a summer bedroom sublet in Austin, please please please let me know. I’d post the Craigslist ad here, but the internet’s scary y’all.

Links

• Um, Reading Rainbow + Classic Novels + Carey Mulligan + Stephen Colbert = The silliest video I’ve seen a while!
• This collection of “Sexy Toy Make-Overs” is so saddening. I’m pretty sure the Care Bears and Trolls really didn’t need it.
• This spring salad with candied pistachios looks so fresh and delicious!
• Hyperbole and a Half is BACK! And she writes/draws one of the most poignant pieces about depression I’ve ever read.
• I can’t wait to try these crispy black bean tacos with feta cheese and slaw! They look like the perfect summer meal.
• These photos have me dreaming of a girls’ vacation in Palm Springs!
• The Hell Yeah Beards of Seattle tumblr is exactly what the title says. And it’s pretty darn sexy.
• These images of “play” are the best way to get the summer started.

Friday Fun Day – 5/10/13

Ramen from East Side Kings! Yum!

This is a short post today, because I spent the middle of the week on vacation in Houston instead of hanging out on the internet. The real world actually won for once! Weird!

What I Learned

• Houston is actually a really pretty city. The area where I stayed had some of the biggest oak trees I’ve ever seen, lots of little parks, shady lanes and world class museums. I’d love to go back and stay longer next time!
• A big thunderstorm is not the best time to start dog-sitting. Poor puppy. She’s losing her mind.

Links

• Love these state ink stamps! Not sure what I’d use them for, but I think I’d like both a California and a Texas!
• Although I’m a bit smaller now, I very much straddled the plus size/straight size world for a really long time…and it’s really hard! Straight sizes may be a tiny bit small, but things cut in the plus size style swallow you up. This guide has some helpful advice for dealing with that issue.
• This feature makes me love Kevin Russ, one of my favorite instagrammers, even more.
• Thank you, Debenhams (a big time UK department store), for actually featuring models of all types!
• Ryan Gosling HATES cereal. HATES it.
• This photo essay asks, “Is there an average McDonald’s customer?”
• Mandi takes Laura Petrie’s classic wardrobe from The Dick Van Dyke Show, and colorizes it! 
• Striking side by side photos that illustrate American inequalities.

Friday Fun Day – 5/3/13

What I Learned:

• There is proof that Jamestown settlers during a horrible, starving winter ate a 14 year old girl. Um. Yeah. This article is both fascinating and horrifying.
• I knew that Steve Martin played the banjo. I knew that he dabbled in bluegrass. I DID NOT know that he founded an award entitled the “Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass.” And that he wrote a song for Vince Gill and Dolly Parton on his album “The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo.” Well done, Steve Martin. Comedian, Bruin, Author, former Disneyland employee, bluegrass enthusiast…I love you more and more.

Links:

• Need proof of librarians’ awesomeness? Here are 25 vintage photos that prove just that!
• Downton Abbey as a musical! I love it when I find something that satisfies all my nerdy desires at once!
• 64 year old David Chan has eaten at 6,297 Chinese restaurants across the USA. This man is amazing.
• One of my professors sent out this really awesome feminism meets pop culture blog, and I can’t wait to read more. I’m already sold on this Jennifer Lawrence as Gillian Flynn’s “cool girl” post.
• Never apologize for selfies.
• This photo of a vintage couple cuddling at the beach makes me excited for summer.
• I’m excited to try out this road trip planning tool. Seems like a neat way to find cool stuff along the highway!

Friday Fun Day – 4/26/2013

Found this little store tucked into a neighborhood not far from my house. Love it!

What I Learned:

• LA has once again taken its place at the top of the heap…WORST TRAFFIC IN NORTH AMERICA!!! Wooooooooo!!!! Austin actually ranks 5th, but if you were measuring the amount of time people spend complaining about the traffic, Austin would win hands down.
• Fox bought the rights to do Guys and Dolls, one of my favorite musicals of all time, AND they might have Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum on board. You guys. YOU GUYS.

Links:

• I’m dying to take a few road trips, and maybe I’ll have to incorporate some of these roads that you have to drive before you die.
• This vintage, bright home has so many fun touches! I love the theater seats, the giant chalkboard and the fireplace!
• This home is great too! I love the white walls contrasted with all the colorful accents. And I need some vintage circus posters!
• Guacamole with goat cheese?! Come to mama.
• I have one thing to say about this picture of the gorgeous Jennifer Lawrence: Yowza!
• I made this coconut bread for the engineers I work with this week, and I became the most popular person around. Seriously. Previously super shy guys came out of the woodwork to give me their sincere thanks. So if you’re looking to trap an engineer, bake this bread.
• These vintage photos of a 1948 summer art camp are so enchanting.

• Are you ready to feel old? These super-cuts of pop culture from 1997, 1999 and 2002 took me back to my junior high and high school days…which didn’t seem all that long ago until I saw all the bad late 90′s fashion. I do have to say…1997 Usher is super hot. Or, as I would have said at the time, super fiiiiine.

Friday Fun Day – 4/19/2013

What I learned:

• The world is scary. People can be horrible, governments can be cowardly and fertilizer plants can explode. But, people can also be kind, generous and heroic. Wishing everyone some R&R and peace after a really hard week.

Links:

• Would you like all of Mad Men’s Roger Sterling’s quips in one place? Of course you would. ”Have a drink. It’ll make me look younger.” Oh, Roger.
• I’m dying for some old fashioned French bread pizza after reading this post on Shutterbean. I don’t think I’ve had it since my elementary school cafeteria lunch days!
• How to make cheap clothes look a whole lot less cheap. As the world’s biggest clothing cheapskate, I found this post really, really useful.
• Let’s take a minute to appreciate goats. Ok.
• As a huge sriracha lover, I found this interview with the creator, David Tran, to be illuminating. My favorite line? When told to make the sauce less spicy, Tran retorted, “Hot sauce must be hot. If you don’t like it hot, use less,” he said. “We don’t make mayonnaise here.” Damn right!
• Freddy Prinze Jr, my biggest junior high crush, is still a hottie. I knew how to pick them, apparently!
• I want someone to have a party just so I can make these cute, little spanakopita bites.
• Liberté, Égalité, Beyoncé.

Friday Fun Day – 4/12/2013

An adorable neighborhood library that I found on one of my runs.

It’s a big weekend! Today I’m on an archives trip in College Station, where we’re going to check out the George HW Bush Library and other local archives! Then tomorrow it’s my first 10k and my second horseback riding lesson! Good times.

What I Learned

• The biggest news of the week: Austin is getting Google Fiber! People are freaking out! Unfortunately, it won’t be ready until the middle of 2014, and I may be gone by then…but still!
• Although they were probably never built, people at the end of the 16th century were obsessed with the ideas of cat pianos…where cats would be organized by the pitch of their meow and then struck so they’d meow in melody. Not inhumane at all.
• The mantis shrimp is a jerky, evil ruler of the ocean who can’t be kept in aquariums because it kills all its tankmates. And it has sixteen color receptor cones in its eyes, versus the three that humans have. What amazingness do you see, mantis shrimp?!
• I am more likely to date a millionaire than to be in a car accident on a 1000 mile trip. I find this comforting in so many ways.

Links

• Natalie met Drake in my old LA neighorhood...and I’m SO JEALOUS.
• These abandoned suitcases of insane asylum patients are heartbreaking and fascinating.
• Do you exercise when you’re sore? When you’re sick? When it’s…that time of the month? My favorite health blogger Caitlin answers these questions and more!
• New Yorkers map their own personal version of NYC. Wow. I’m dying to do this with LA/Austin.
• Rosemary lemonade? Yes, please!
• These unstaged photographs of the backstage part of the Vienna Museum of Natural History are fantastic! And yes. I know this post has been a bit museum/history heavy. I’m sorry! It’s the end of the semester, and it’s all up in my brain!

• Dolly Parton has an official Tumblr, y’all!
• Have you ever seen some vintage fashion and just wondered why? Well, Buzzfeed presents 11 ridiculous 1970′s outfits with explanations for each one.

 

 

Friday Fun Day – 4/5/2013

This is Persephone, an absolute sweetie who lives at Austin Pets Alive, a no kill shelter. I kind of love her and wish I was in a place to have a dog right now. Please, someone adopt her and let me visit!

Hope everyone had a great week! I have the most Texas weekend planned — a Kenny Chesney/KACEY MUSGRAVES concert tomorrow night, my first ever horseback trail riding lesson on Saturday, two-stepping lessons at my favorite bar in the evening and then a UT baseball game on Sunday! I know, y’all, I know…

What I Learned:

• There are 26 places where adorable Shiba Inus do not belong. For your reference, here’s a list.
• There were two very important birthdays this week: happy 40th to the cellphone and happy 1st birthday Grumpy Cat!
• 

Links:

• I found this story about a sadly forgotten Jewish cemetery in East LA to be fascinating. LA is good about hiding its history, but it’s certainly there if you look.
• EVERY GUY I’VE EVER DATED (well, sometimes you’d have to switch Game of Thrones with Lord of the Rings, but it’s the same deal).
• I get tired of reading all the omg sugar is evil, no carbs, only eat kale posts that seem to inundate the internet. This post is a refreshing antidote to that madness.
• Sarah Von visited Dollywood…and I’m insanely jealous! I might have to check it out this summer…
• Are you looking for some marriage advice? Let some 1950′s bridal magazines guide you! Don’t forget to let your husband have a man-sized chair!
• Kid President meets President Obama! No, I’m not crying…I just have something in my eye.
• The Onion’s tribute to the late, great Roger Ebert is surprisingly sweet: “Roger Ebert Hails Human Existence as ‘A Triumph’”

Friday Fun Day – 3/29/13

Because aren’t we all?

What I Learned:

• Easter foods can be terrifying! Here’s a cute Easter Bunny made out of bread…with a hollowed out stomach where you put the dip. Yep. It looks like you’re eating the bunny’s guts. Does no one else find this vaguely disturbing?!
• Easter cards can also be super scary! What the heck, Easter?!

Links:

• Love Brittany’s confidence in her bikini! It’s a wonderful reminder of how swimsuit season should be fun instead of terrifying. Curvy girls FTW!
• Librarians are a bunch of boring old ladies who like to shush folks right? Wrong. Flavorwire put together a list of the 10 coolest librarians, and they really are doing some awesome work. I would LOVE to go to Audrey Barbakoff’s “Radical Home Ec” class and the floating book group on the Bainbridge Island ferry! Any of my Seattle readers should totally do it!
• Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, though I tend to stay in a cereal/oatmeal/fried egg sandwich/grapefruit rut. Maybe these 25 amazing breakfast recipes will help me to expand my horizons!
• And this blood orange lemon fizz drink would be perfect for the hot summer days on the horizon!
• In celebration of the start of baseball season (aka the best season), here is a round up of the worst 25 baseball uniforms in history. Um, the tux one? KIND OF AMAZING.
• I found my summer project — embroidering tea towels with Downton Abbey characters.
• My other summer project? Watching these 82 comedies on Netflix Instant. What a fantastic list!
• A must have for all children of the 90′s: Clarissa Darling paper dolls!

Friday Fun Day – 3/22/2013

Littlefield House on the University of Texas campus. Ridiculous.

What I Learned:

• According to this fantastic 1940′s Disney cartoon about the wonders of menstruation, you CAN take showers when it’s that time of the month. WHO KNEW?! (really? People thought this was a problem? REALLY?). And some great advice: “Don’t let it get you down. After all no matter how you feel, you have to live with people.” Siiiigh. So true.
• So, uh, you can buy the sweet Toyota Tercel Jesse drives in Breaking Bad. Yeah, so it may be a step back from my sweet 97 Civic, but my street cred would go through the roof!

Links:

• This article about the new trend of the feminist housewife makes me feel equal parts sympathetic, outraged, exasperated and very very anxious.
• A lot of TV has been lost to the ages, due to the lack of space, interest and general archival standards. This article about how Groucho Marx’s “You Bet Your Life” TV show was saved really shows how difficult this process is.
• I love essay collections and can’t wait to check some of these out: Flavorwire’s 25 Greatest Essay Collections
• These realistic body shape mannequins in Sweden are a step in the right direction for more accurate representations of body shape in regular clothing stores.
• Kerry at Welcome to Ladyville dishes out some for real truths in “How to Find Time for Writing When You Have a Day Job.” 
• This style guide will teach you how to live in one of my favorite movies, Best in Show! Remember, you need to get yourself a Norwich terrier. My parents own two, and they’re pretty fricking awesome. 
• I have super balcony envy! I want any of these!
• What happened to the Disney princesses after their happy endings? Let this talented kid tell you…in harmonious song!
• This citrus salad looks so fresh and pretty for a spring dinner party!
• A striking photo essay of men in Europe’s traditional wild men costumes. The burryman costume from Queensferry, Scotland must be one of the world’s uncomfortable outfits.
• Some good advice on how to get through hard times. Bookmark this one for later.
• And to end on a lighter note, a dad meets an Abercrombie model. Hilarity ensues.

Friday Fun Day — 3/15/2013

SXSW means a whole bunch of food trucks…with their creative tip jars.

As you read this, I am most likely SXSWing, which is definitely a verb. It means waiting in neverending lines for shows, wearing my most hipster outfits, and gossiping over beers with my old friends who are in town. It’s going to be amaaaaazing.

What I Learned:

• The new Pope Francis I just might be George Bluth Sr. It’s uncanny.
• Google Reader is going away on July 1st! Boooooo. Worst birthday present everrrrrr.

Links:

• I would love to live in this apartment. The ceiling! The fireplace! The quilts! The books!!!
• I just bought a new bikini. I’m pretty sure THIS applies.
• Why I love history.
• I’m usually skeptical of healthy cookie recipes, but this one for oatmeal raisin cookies actually sounds pretty good.
• My favorite Austin blogger writes a beautiful essay about how it is to be a local when SX is popping off.
• And Amazon has a free mp3 mix full of SXSW bands’ music.
• DesignSponge presents the best cats in interior design. Bless you, DesignSponge.
• As I just signed up for my first 10k (in a month!), I’m thinking about trying some of these strategies to speed up my time.
• I hope that when I go, my obituary will be half as awesome as this one.