problems with easy solutions.

i have been 100% uninspired lately.

i think i might be dwelling too much on negative things. my stolen $600 hasn't helped much either.

i am excited for Christmas. to see my family, and girls. to meet the most precious first baby born into our clan.
i am excited for 2011. 2010 was out of control. in a span of 6 months time EVERY SINGLE person who was close to me got married, engaged, pregnant, gave birth, and/or disappeared. lots of exciting stuff, some sad stuff. all change. sometimes i feel like i'm living without a constant like it's my job. even though that's not really true.

ANYWAY,

i think i want to start some kind of photo project for the new year. since i will have a new dslr and lots of new things to learn, it seems like the perfect time to start some kind of 365 day project. but i would like to think of an interesting theme to narrow the set into...any ideas?

i finally got settled enough at the new place to set up a little studio for myself and update the shop. even though the natural light situation in my apartment is HORRID, i kinda dig the overexposed look of the new photos.

heads & pants are overrated.

Lots of stuff up NOW, more to come on Wednesday! lots of sparkly and fun things for NYE, perhaps?

Wish me luck for my drive home tomorrow. i am going to be traveling for 6 hours in the car with a VERY cranky, crying cat.

good reason to take loads of pictures.

love this stop motion movie of a west coast road trip. via jason's tumblr.



LA to Santa Cruz to Portland to Seattle and Back from Ian Flanigan on Vimeo.

it makes me think, as many things do nowadays, what kind of camera should i buy? i am ready for a new one, but the choices as far as entry-level dslrs are positively mind numbing.

and now it's time for a gratuitous picture of my cat:

she has been such a little fashion plate lately, posing for photos left and right. i find her in the bathtub all the time, licking at the water left from the shower. it always makes me think she must not have any in her bowl, but of course she always does. she just likes the tub. perhaps it's just her roots, considering when she first came home to me she lived in the tub for a couple of hours...

aww. only one year old. so tiny!

busy bee.

i have been a busy bee.

i feel like i haven't gotten a minutes rest in a while, and yet i feel like i am so behind on everything.

if i had to choose two words for how i have been feeling lately, they would be HAPPY and OVERWHELMED. but, not "overwhelmed with happiness." and not really "happily overwhelmed" either.

i do adore my new apartment, as unfinished as it is. it probably won't be finished for at least a whole year. i put up some wooden door beads in my kitchen doorway (because i am a hippie like that.) it took philomena a little while to understand that she could just walk right on through them. i think she thought it was a similar concept when i hung a sheer curtain at my closet entryway; it was quite cute to watch her try to push on it with her little head to see if she could get though. she is not the fastest cat i have ever met. she seems happy too, though. being the queen of her new palace.


and, i want this:

 

it's a journal that has a small space to write a line about what happened each day for five years, so you can go back and see what you were doing that same day, years before. i miss writing in a journal, but it's hard to do everyday. hopefully the small writing space will make me less... overwhelmed. buy it for me here.


that's all for today, no internet at home yet! check my flickr for some photos from this weekend's Hollywood Christmas Parade. where i saw my hero, Dick Van Dyke. who is now very, very old. and not skinny anymore. don't talk about it.

oh and some fun ugly holiday listings are live tonight at the shop.

i'll tumble for ya.

as a consequence of some very mean neighbors and ongoing mail theft, my busy weekend of cleaning/moving was thwarted. i personally don't understand how someone can steal things from a persons mailbox/doorstep and sleep at night. it's just so unnecessary, and i wish a very un-merry christmas to them. so, i'm going north tomorrow with a still-dirty new apartment; a messy old apartment; my cozy new armchair still waiting for me to find a truck to bring it home in; and no money in the bank. best laid plans. le sigh. to help drown my feelings of frustration and helplessness, i went over to mike's house yesterday with a case of beer. he made me pancakes and deep fried reese's peanut butter cups, and i drank cans of budweiser while he packed his suitcases for seattle. he answered all of my tumblr questions, and i fell in love with it's easy and simple bookmark-ey layout. it's like blogger and twitter got together and had a much prettier and less self-indulgent baby. take a peek:

i guess i am still not really sure about the politics of the whole thing (who do i follow? who follows me? is that really the point?) and it seems to be filled with a lot teenage angst. i think i love it nonetheless. all the pretty pictures i have been finding are like little challenges to my creative self--i wish there were more hours in the day! i also wish i could afford a new camera. ahh i wish i wish i wish. i feel like my head is always swimming with ideas and i get so overwhelmed/discouraged by things that aren't perfect that i just end up being lazy. i suppose i just need to learn to tote my camera with me always. and go outside more. and paint my walls. i can do those three things, i think.

speaking of paint, i am still at a near loss as to the colors i want to choose for my new apartment. my new oversized armchair is the only piece of furniture i am really married to; it has colors of olive, gold, and black. one drawback of the new place is that it doesn't get much light... so i don't want to paint anything that is too drab and will make the space seem darker than it is. i also need to keep at least one wall white for photos. i think i am deciding between olive green:

 

and goldenrod:

 but i kind of feel like the green might be too dark, and yellow is more of a kitchen color? there's also the ever popular teal:

which i absolutely adore. i HAVE already had a teal room though. and i'm just not sure if it will match my new chair. but i'm also not sure i care. i think i might just do what i want with this place, and not think too hard about it.

don't forget to pop over to the shop and take a look at the the vintage-y goodness. holiday party dresses/ warm+wintery sweaters abound!

on the cab ride you said nothing, just hair all in your face

it's been a while since i have done an outfit post, but i am so excited with a recent find that i feel compelled to share. recently i ventured all the way to a little vintage shop in Reseda, and came across lots of goodies. one being this lovely little vintage French Connection gauze top.

it is the prettiest robin's egg blue, and the super thin rayon material falls SO perfectly. it was one of those things that i realized would not be leaving my closet anytime soon the moment i put it on. actually, it came with a matching skirt, and while i am not so into the "matchers" look i wouldn't be averse to wearing separately (i have been strangely digging calf length skirts lately), but it is very VERY tiny, even for my already pretty tiny waist. i would sell it, but i feel bad breaking up the set, somehow? oh well.

i've paired with some uber-fun stonewashed high waist denim jeans, my ubiquitous leather and wood platform sandals, and my new FAVORITE gifted (or, lent?) stretchy gold men's watch.

although admittedly, the outfit wasn't worn much today-- i only left the house briefly for a quick post office/lunch trip. the rest of the day has been spent furiously working on my next round of listings set to start Sunday night (and there is LOTS of good stuff!) i am under some pressure to get it all finished, since i would also like to spend some time cleaning/moving into my new apartment tomorrow-- the first (and when i have to be OUT of the ghetto) is going to be here before i know it, and i still have soooo much to clean/move/buy/paint. and next week it's up to the Bay Area for Thanksgiving-- and although it cuts a week out of my moving time, i am so looking forward to it. hanging with my family, seeing my bests (one of whom is about to pop out my little baby "nephew" in a month!), dragging my favorite drinking buddy to my favorite bar in the city, and lots of thrifting in my old hotspots. plus it's pretty exciting to NOT be working retail for the first black Friday in YEARS.

it doesn't feel like the holidays... maybe because it's still 80 degrees in LA. but it didn't feel like the holidays last year either, not even on Christmas day. but... this year it feels ok, somehow.

moats & boats & waterfalls

after just one exciting and stressful day of apartment hunting, i uncovered the space that i will call my own for (at least) the next year.


it's in an charming 1920's building in hollywood, that i think i will lovingly refer to it at "the devonshire" from now on. the building manager is and adorable charles bukowski-esque man who i spent an hour sitting and chatting with about his life, the neighborhood, and old hollywood. it has everything i was looking for- vintage details (like a tiny closet that connects to the hall that they used for milk delivery), hardwood floors, lots of space, a full kitchen, an outdoor patio for reading, a roof for sunbathing/barbecuing, close to public transit, and in an area i can walk around in and not be constantly looking over my shoulder.

i am so excited to start filling the space! it's going to take me a while to get it just how i want. paint? wallpaper? FURNITURE? my head is swimming with ideas.

not having to share fridge space with anyone is a completely foreign concept to me. cooking dinners and ENTERTAINING? ahh so exciting!

i spent my first "night" in the apartment with mike and wine, listening to a collection of left records we raided from the basement.

so happy to finally have a space to create a home i am proud to call my own. here's to me and my fur baby and our new apartment!

pretty words will always make me late.

Maybe the best song, ever?

Suddenly I want to be in a dark and smoky bar with Nightmoves up next on the juke.


It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don’t matter, anyhow
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don’t know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you anymore
I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
But goodbye’s too good a word, gal
So I’ll just say fare thee well
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right