friday favorites.

I've been a complete Scrooge and really totally lacked in any Christmas spirit posting and for that I apologize.

For some reason (maybe the lack of snow?) I've really kind of missed the mark with Christmas spirit this year.

But I am completely looking forward to being with my family all weekend.

Anyways, on to the favorites.

First up from National Geographic Photo of the Day: a girl with a kite in India, taken by Simon Christen, love it.

And then this one of Upper Yosemite Falls, California, taken by Andrew Coffing.  WANT TO GO.

Went to go see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo last night.  OBSESSED with the books is an understatement, and generally I don't like movies based off of books, I get all sorts of frustrated with the differences, etc....but the director did an awesome job with this movie.  Lisbeth Salandar kicks so much fucking arse.

I'm a huge fan of well done street art, and well, here is a slideshow of the 10 best street art works.  Check 'em out.

Because smiling is my favorite - here's some rationale behind why you should all smile more :)

Dr. Seuss love, obvs.

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?  It came without ribbons.  It came without tags.  It came without packages, boxes or bags.  And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.  Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.  What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.  What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.

Winter landscape in Bavaria, Germany....photo via bing.

Happy Holidays - remember the reason for the season and enjoy your Christmas this weekend!

only once.

friday favorites.

Heyyyo.

I've got a busy busy busy weekend ahead - not what I really dig, but I'll make do. 

Let's just hope everything goes according to plan, including my cookie making attempt on Saturday.

Anyways, I'm going to go right skip ahead into the favorites.

LOOOOVE this idea.  Global Giving - give a giftcard with a designated amount and the recipient gets to pick the charity of their choice....talk about the gift that keeps giving!

I have a seriously low attention span - so having a site devoted to providing 10-12 short articles or links a day, is seriously awesome in my book.  Brilliant, 22 Words, brilliant.  It totally allows me to keep up with what's going on the web.

Best quote I have stumbled upon today: nothing is more badass than being yourself.  Truth.

My travel list is seriously like never ending, 12 Most Beautiful Lakes in the World - ummm, duh, count me in.

Honestly, how freaking true is this?

via hellogiggles.

Sorry not much on here today - but alas, I will leave you with this little gem from Marilyn Monroe.

Stay crazy creepsters, I'm obvs gonna.

Enjoy your weekend.

thought for thursday.

LOVE this, enough said.

invisibility.

Before us small town girls headed off to the big bad city....I got a text talking about wearing some flannel plaid to put our small town roots on display.

Immediately I knew I must take it a step further.

So alas, I threw on my black skinnies, knee high gray suede boots, a lovely cream tunic, and are you ready....a camouflage sweatshirt as my final layer, for the win.

So my 2 friends picked me up and were completely astonished with my last minute decision....which I will say, fucking rocked.

Off we went, me chattering a mile a minute in the back seat to which prompted the ever normal statement: if I didn't know you I would totally think you were on drugs.

I wish I received like a dollar everytime someone said that....seriously it would pay for a flight to Florida to visit my BFF.

Anyways, we had some road sodas en route, got lost in the ghetto - seriously was way scary -and got safely to our friend's condo.

We had some beverages and then headed to a restaurant where I made myself laugh several times with statements to the waiter along the lines of this:

Don't joke with me sir, if I throw on this here layer, you won't even see me....I'm serious.

Is that a branch - ohhh, nope just my arm.

Anyways, so we had some drankks and dinner - where I charmingly waved to an entire table full of gentlemen.

It's weird going out with a group of girls and having everyone at the table either be engaged or married, except for your single self, but I classed it up, no worries.

After dinner - and some "birthday" shots....thanks girls, we headed off to a bar.

Where eye contact was made with a mister mister across the room, who began a dance off as he made his way our direction....he stopped upon arrival and immediately asked if my camo was the result of a dare.

No, no dare....I had to one-up my friend here in the flannel plaid.  I figured camouflage was the only appropriate solution.

He immediately started laughing and said he was impressed.

That's right, I said impressed.

At that point - I removed said camo layer, immediately becoming visible once more, and a dance off ensued.

It was awesome, except the music was fucking terrible dance off music - think accoustic guitar, classic rock-esque, etc.

We made it work.

He then got my number....and soon after friended me on facebook.

I even heard from him already this week, and to be honest, he's fucking hilarious....and even proposed us getting together at some point in the future.

Sooooo....I'm gonna come right out and say it: clearly the way to pick up a man is to rock some camouflage.

Get on it ladies.

friday favorites.

ohhh heyyo.

It's Friday, phew.

I'm wicked excited because I'm off to a big city this evening with some fellow small towners to visit the very first friend I ever had.

Legit, like we had our picture taken in preschool so that I could take it home with me and I would know I had a friend there and not cry obnoxiously EVERY DAY.

I still cried.

Anyways, we kinda got separated in high school - and didn't stay in touch in college - but we recently got reconnected, so I'm excited to go visit her and party like a rock - or something.

Onwards to the favorites.

I've posted about living in smaller spaces before.  I'm a huge supporter of it.  I don't need a lot of room for me and my dogster and besides, less space means you live pretty minimally, you keep the clutter non-existant, and cleaning takes up so much less of your time.  So check out these options of the small home variety.  I especially love the Z-Glass house.

A photo gallery of Ryan Gosling, did I just pee my pants?  Yep, a little bit.

And a big shoutout thank you to People for wasting lots of my minutes perusing all the Best of 2011 various photo galleries.

Two photos from Bing.

The first is early morning light over Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, in California.  Love sunrise, and this one is pretty damn gorgeous.

This second picture is just really, really interesting.  It's the Plain of Jars, Phonsavan region, in Laos.

I mentioned my sweet ass shades in another post.  But perhaps you'd like a shirt, a trucker hat, even a beirut table?!  I give you the sorry for partying online store.  I need some more of these goods, immediately.

Historical (among other things) properties being utilized as completely awesome hotels - talk about GO GREEN in an amaze-balls way!  New travel idea?  I think yes.

And why didn't I think about wearing something so simple, yet fucking awesome, before seeing Mary Kate Olsen in it?

I hate money and all the associations with it.  This might be because I have minimal cash flow, ya know.  But for real, I think this is spot on.

And finally, spot on Maya Angelou, spot on.

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass."

Go kick some ass creepers.

Enjoy your weekend - ok byeee.

thought for thursday.

I'm one of the most indecisive people EVER.

I more or less waffle back and forth until someone decides for me.

But giving up that decision means I lose out on choosing what will make me the happiest, or most content.

I think I'm gonna need to start listing to my gut.

“It’s important to know that there is a difference between listening to your instinct and listening to your gut. Your gut knows everything. But your gut isn’t cocky. It isn’t loud. It doesn’t force you to listen to it. It subtly lets you know what’s right, and then it gets quiet while you figure it out the hard way. Your instincts are trained habits that you created somewhere along the way. And they are usually just what you’re comfortable with. And some of us are comfortable being unhappy, being taken advantage of, being walked all over, ignored, overlooked, under respected, being made to settle. Your gut tells you the truth, it tells you when something is off. It tells you what no one else will…”

via everything lovely.

sorry for partying.

Any potential love affair I might have been considering with BCBG is done, caput, over FOREVER.

My sister had a company holiday party on Friday and I was her date (classy, per usual), and well seeing as I don't really have fancy shmancy dresses just laying around I clearly needed to buy one.

I ordered one from BCBG, which generally is a brand I LOVE.

I got the dress on Wednesday afternoon.

It was the most horrible article of clothing I could have selected.

Literally, the material was terrible and the actual form (you know how they like sew hips & shit in) was awful!  Honestly, I never would have even given the dress a second glance in a store.

Never.

Thankfully my Mom is a good sport and didn't mind a late night shopping extravaganza on Thursday night.

And thankfully, White House Black Market is as fucking amazing as it is. 

Even more amazing is the sale rack and the fact that I got a sparkly little black number for $50.

So anyways, onwards to Friday.

I woke up with a terrible cold, the kind that punches you in the face.

So I opted to take a dayquill around, oh I don't know noonish, figuring it would wear off in time for alcohol.

So off I went to the hotel to meet my sister, where we dazzled ourselves up with hairspray and 4 inch heels.

And down to the party.

After 4 hours of standing in 4 inch heels, I quite seriously could no longer walk. 

Well, I suppose the open bar helped the walking situation and I was able to saunter quite appropriately.

We went back up to the hotel room where my sister informed me she had brought me a change of clothes appropriate for going out to the club.

Ohhh, um ok....well I'm kinda like ready for bed, with this cold and all the beers, you know?

SHUT UP, go change, we're going out.

Obvs all the convincing I needed.

I changed, put on some flats, hopped in a cab to a bar, where we got a table and bottle service.

By bottle service, I mean everyone was drinking vodka sodas, puke.

So they kept making me cups, I kept taking a sip, and putting it down some other location in the bar.

I also cleared the dance floor and threw down the most epic dance party of my whole entire life.

Where I also somehow scored some sweet ass old school rayban-esque shades with neon blue sides that say "sorry for partying" on the armband.

After the club scene got old, a cab was taken back to the hotel.

Where I legit wrapped my sweet shades in my clothes in order to prevent any stealing from anyone (who, I don't actually know).

Then we went back downstairs and 5 of us hopped in a limo to go get Chinese food.

Yes, I said limo.

No, I have no idea how much that cost.

The limo also waited while we stuffed our faces with Chinese deliciousness.

We then raced from the restaurant and hopped back in our limo.

Back to the hotel, where I curled up for slumber.

I woke up feeling like my head could possibly split open.

Apparently dayquill that did not leave my system might do that.

Or the beers, I don't know.

But I do know that I couldn't pick my head up off the pillow to put my necklace (which I had taken off the night before) back on, which means that I laid it on the bed until I could pick my head up.

I then proceeded to drive home with my head laid back against the car seat wearing my sweet ass shades.

It then dawned on me that somehow I left the hotel without putting my necklace on.

I cried, on the inside, because I wasn't physically capable of making real tears.

But in all seriousness, should you want to score some shades like the ones I brought home, I give you: sorry for partying.

thought for thursday.

So gosh darn true.  And it's a good thing me and my sidekick dig adventures.