Shahnnen

cubical life

for dare 106, jamaica sent out little packets of wonder, filled with dreams of woodgrain and whispers of sweet nothings of letterpress.  and the presentation was ingenious, too. (as usual--that girl rocks.)
so, to live up to the dares,  i had to make something fabulous.  craig and i brainstormed for a  long time (yes, i make him help me think of scrap ideas.  i know.)  and, this was actually his idea.  we talked about a backgammon board, but then rubik's was thrown out.  (but i think i'm going to do later.  more details to come.)  it turned out really cool, but it was hard to phtograph, but you get the gist.  for more pics, and to see what others did with it, go here.

i can't be the only one...

 so about a month ago i went to this-- modern economy lifestyle & home sample sale (appropriately, it was at the ace hotel.)  and i got some great stuff-- a nantaka joy journal, variegated dog collar and leash (the same people who wrote a great dog book- eco-dog.)-- it was all on sale-- most of it 50-80% off.  score.

i also got a beautiful screen printed linen/silk napkin by Dermond Peterson.  i was going to spend a small fortune on an entire set, but i couldn't even think about using them-- greasy fingerprints and spaghetti-mouth-wiping and all. so i got just one.  and framed it.  i can't be the only one who frames random shit, right?

so here it is.  (it's a bad picture, but bear with me.)  i origially got it to hang in our kitchen, but seeing as how we are moving soon (hopefully-- i hate this house!  esp. the kitchen.)  so for the time being, it's staying on our coffee table.  i like it.

puppy breath

early-onset OCD

going to target today made me wistful for the start of school again.  this is the first fall since i was 4 (over 2 decades!) that i am not going to school.  kind of sad, kind of liberating.  in any event, the crayons are so cheap!  when did that happen? i remember when it was a big deal to have the 64 box of Crayolas.  with built in sharpener.  and all the crazy colors that didn't end up being used.  mine were always in 'color order', so i suppose my OCD organizing was early-onset. 
i loved all of the options you had-- and i loved having the flesh tone crayon, so i didn't have to color people yellow or pink or leave them white--that always bothered me. (apparently i was politically correct at a young age.)
anyway, it is the 50th anniversary of the 64-count box, and they are having a game on the crayola site where you try to guess all the color names-- like burnt sienna, brick red, sepia, carnation pink, periwinkle.  it's a little bit of nostalgia for those of us no longer needing rounded safety scissors. 

face time

my mom works for a dermatologist.  which rocks, because i get all the free stuff, and advice dispensed freely.  she does microdermabrasions, varicose vein treatments, botox, juvaderm, restalyn, etc.  and a million other things that i don't know about.  since she's worked there (for the past year), my skin (not that bad in the beginning, just minor blemishes here-n-there), my skin has totally changed.
i use glytone, which is a system of cleansers, lotions, etc. that exfoliate everyday using glycolic acid-- clearing up blemishes and --essentially because it strips the very outer layer of skin off everyday, it prevents/removes fine lines and wrinkles because it forces your skin to regenerate/renew itself.  it stings a little when you first start using it, but it is really awesome.  my mom's fine lines around her eyes have dramatically diminished.
glytone is great, but really, the world's greatest invention is the clairsonic.  JT (yes, as in timberlake) got cameron diaz into using it when they dated, and now apparently she doesn't leave home without it.  we also use a sonic care toothbrush, and its essentially the same thing, but for your face.  its not just spinning and ripping your skin--its sonically pulsing, and it is nothing short of pure bliss.  i am totally addicted--we take them both (toothbrush and clairsonic) everywhere with us--camping, traveling, etc.  it's my one luxury i refuse to be without.  i highly recommend them, if you have troubled skin, or not. 

seriously?!?

I took this picture a while ago, when we went to the oregon coast in early june.  we stayed in the spindrift inn in manzanita the first night, which was an err... interesting town.  It is tiny, and as all small towns, it is eff-ing quirky.  we stayed at the spindrift because it was 1) pet-friendly 2) it was last-minute 3) BIG pet-friendly.  not because it had 75 cent sunkist soda vending machine. 
back to the picture.  the second night, we stayed at an oddly pet-friendly best western.  it wasn't quite in season yet, so it wasn't the $375/night it normally is (!).  It was nice enough dated and totally 80's, and it had this lovely in the bathrooms. 
 
This is why I love about traveling, especially spur-of-the-moment shorter trips-- the random shit you can find.  And, you have to love the wallpaper, too.  Pretty classic.

a whole new ballgame

• a smattering of stuff in my head--
• this is the first official post from the new mac-sitch.  the keyboard is surprisingly roomy, and we have left the house only to 1-get another ethernet CAT5 cord 2- eat some chronic pok pok.  yes, in that order.

•   i bought smart people on iTunes, but i feel guilty watching anthing but the olympics.  and i feel chained to the tv-- i really need to get a treadmill in front of the tv.

• we are most likely going back to montucky next weekend, as it is the loft's last show.  for real this time.  our friend damon got a job at mike thrasher, and he is moving out here mid-september.

• the time capsule is working like a dream, after a quick call to comcast.  it's all money now.

• this is my new favorite website.  cake wrecks.  the first time i found it, i was totally sucked in and read through the entire archives, waking up the dogs and craig--who was upstairs, laughing so hard. 

take for example, this post from august 8th-

What the customer said:
“So we’re throwing a going-away party for our friend, and we’d like you to write “Good luck at U.C.”, since that’s the college she’s going to. Also, she’s a big E.T. fan – you know, from the movie? – so we want to incorporate that somehow. I’ll leave it up to you; we just want something E.T.- related on it. Can you do that? Yeah? Cool! Thanks!”

What the decorator heard:
“Blah blah blah, write blah E.T. blah blah on it. Blah.”
 
What the decorator was thinking:
“Okey doke, easy peasy, now I’ll just write 'Good Luck'... oh, wait: does 'good' have two 'o's or two 'd's? Dang. Oh well, I’ll just make this letter look a little like both. There! No one will notice anyway. Ok, and then: 'at…U.C…'...thank goodness that doesn’t need any periods; those are so hard to do with this icing! Ok, let’s see here…you know, I think I'm going to go the extra mile for these folks and write E.T. on it THREE times. And I’m pretty sure just the 'E' has a period… yeah, that looks right. Dum dee dum…. There! All done! Aw, they are just going to love me.”

genuis, right?  you can thank me later when you have spent the last 2 hours feversihly devouring the content of the archives when you really supposed to be working/laundry/sleeping.  you're welcome.

additions

suck it, old gateway desktop.  i suppose it has been an ok  err..marginal suck-ass computer.   yesterday we expanded our technological family.
this is my new baby- macbook air. and craig got this lovely puppy.-the  uber-pimped out mac book Pro. luh-cky.

because i am was a student (and we bought a buttload of stuff) we both got the student deals.  10% off both computers, 15% off apple care, 10% off bento and iLife, and we both got free iPod touches, and free printers. 
today, i want to go back and get the 500 gB time capsule, and set up our wireless network here at home. 
it was like christmas.
hallelujah. 

crazy eights

of course.  watching history is thrilling, even if I'm on the couch. 

by popular demand

and by popular demand, i mean i went and told my idea of scanning the little dog to craig and he agreed that hilarity would insue.
so here are the not-so-great results.  but it was funny watching a dog eat treats off of scanner glass.