After months and months of scouring etsy for the perfect garland and coming up with NOTHING (I'm sure it's out there, I'm just not always the best etsy searcher), I finally bit the bullet and decided to make my own. A quick google search turned up this handy diy, of course. We've got a dark grey wall in our living area (where we sit/sleep), and I figured gold was the perfect color to offset it! A quick trip to wet paint for gold paper (as usual, they had the perfect thing) and I was off! It was so simple, I don't know why I didn't do it before!

 



I think if I ever completely give up on being an artist (god forbid), I want to be a party planner! Doing garland research really made me wish I had time to do art/go to work/plan five million fabulous parties all at once.

unlisted

Thursday roll call! Time to spill my guts about the things that have been occupying my noggin:

 -FANCY. GRILLED. CHEESES. I stumbled upon Grilled Cheese Social (the name alone is too good to be true) last week and haven't looked back since. Bryan and I are in charge of dinner one night for an upcoming Bryan-family vacation, and we've decided that we should do fancy grilled cheese night. This, of course, means we have to test out a lot of the recipes on GCS. OH THE HUMANITY.

-Uh, do you guys know about Carson Ellis, aka My Favorite Illustrator? If not, go to her website and then come back here after you've enjoyed it. Now that you've done that, check out Wildwood - a new young adult fantasy novel that she created with her husband, aka Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. Yep. It's awesome.

 -Finding the perfect knee-high, short heel, warm brown, leather boot with some sort of buckle accent but NOT TOO MUCH and also preferably under $200. Having Zappos at my fingertips does not help me narrow my search down. The boots pictured above are from J. Crew are, as is to be expected, not in my price range. Heck, I don't even know if they're the perfect pair!

-In other seasonal clothing quests, I need a new winter coat. And I want a pair with toggles. The coat pictured above is from Anthropologie, and considering it costs less that those boots I am SO ready to pop on it.

-Did you see Drive? I have seen it twice. The Gosling (as I have taken to affectionately calling him) is everso attractive in it - that jean jacket? Be stillllll my heart. The soundtrack has been stuck in my head nonstop.

-Pop up dinner parties! Surprise surprise, considering I'm in love with everything Oh Happy Day! right now. She hosted a great little pop-up dinner party in Paris (jels) and also wrote a small article on the Real Simple Blog about a HUGE pop-up dinner party that has its roots in Paris. Until someone plans a Dîner en Blanc in St. Paul, I'll have to stick to planning my own pop-up dinner party. I think a fall themed on in the park nearby on the hill would be wonderful. Guess I've got to read up on the St. Paul laws for their parks! (edit: also check out Kinfolk's magazine and blog for more beautiful party ideas.)

What's taking up your brain space?

glass house

Owen on the left, Fillmore on the right.

After going through the traumatic experience of sitting at a certain eye glass retailer and literally hearing the frames (seen in this post) I brought in to be fitted SNAP due to bad quality (they were dried up!), I have given up owning a second pair of vintage frames. Where's a girl to go after her (second) pair of dream glasses die a quick but paintful death? DUH GUYS, duh. Warby Parker! If you have been living under a blog rock, Warby Parker makes really fantastic looking vintage inspired frames and fills 'em with your prescription for a measly $95 (although if your eyes are bad like mine they tack on $30). Added bonuses include the donation of a pair of glasses to someone who needs them with each purchase and completely free home try-on and you've got yourself a perfect company.

I had 5 pairs delivered and three made the final cut. Up there you can see the Owen in Striped Tortoise and the Fillmore in Revolver Black. Because I'm blind as a bat and had a self timer as my photographer I look sort of redonk in every single photo I took, so lets overlook that, hmm? I liked the Filmore quite a lot, but I'm sort of looking for a larger frame to contrast with my current glasses. The Owen was also nice, love that little metal detail! They seemed just a tidbit too boxy for my face, though.

Tenley, in both pictures. Apparently asleep in one picture.

The Tenley in Burgundy Fade really sealed the deal for me in the end. I love the rounded bottom, the size of the frame, and the color is really fantastic. Bryan and some folks on Instagram seem to agree as well! What do you think?

 p.s. Something on the current page is pushing my sidebar alllll the way to the bottom of the page and I cannot figure out what it is!! Any ideas?

gold standard

I dragged myself home halfway through the day yesterday with a crazy headcold. It's been awhile since I got sick, and this one threw me for a loop! I got some pho and watched When Harry Met Sally, though - and today I feel GREAT. One of the nice things about being couch-ridden for half the day was I got to poke around the bloggies! I'd been meaning to delve into Oh Happy Day as it essentially has all the things I want: pretty pictures, someone living in Paris, good taste in clothing AND... pinatas?

image c/o Oh Happy Day

Don't get me wrong, I loved a good pinata and the rain of sweets that it produced back in the day, but I haven't really though about them since the fifth grade. Jordan, being the genius she is, has brought me back. This precious DIY golden alligator pinata drew some serious "OH FOR CUTE"s from me, albeit in a stuffy, tired voice. Mark my words, I WILL make this pinata, and I will hang it in my apartment and I will name him Frank.

But in the meantime, I will do a drawing of him wearing a top hat!

scout's honor

Look around you! There are neat places to eat and shop and look at stuff EVERYWHERE. And I'm so excited that the gloriously talented Tuesday and Meg Lewis of studio sweet studio asked LITTLE OL' ME to contribute City Guide for their Minneapolis edition of City Scout! I cheated and mostly featured St. Paul places, but you can hit up my best buddy Alli's guide some some tasty Minneapolis tidbits. Also ignore how many times I wrote "top notch", because it's embarrassing.

film club

leaving canterbury park 

 In the middle of the summer, Alli lent/gave me a silly lil' point and shoot Olympus Accura and I have been so happy with my newfound camera phone alternative! I'm not photographer, but I think some of these give a pretty good representation of my summer. Hopefully I'll get the same results for fall... although I'll also hopefully master how far away I need to be from someone's face for them to be in focus. I think there are about 8 photos with blurry faces!





 box fan summer
 RA's last breakfast / Alli at the flea market
 canterbury park fashion
 my favorite part of the state fair that i've never been to

Bryan shows concern at the pickle shaped rock Alli got for her birthday

optional

top: urban outfitters, skirt: vintage from dutchdrift (and pointed out to me by darcy), shoes: swedish hasbeens 

 I finally sat down and started thinking about the two longer-length skirts I have in my closet right now. HOW THE FRICK AM I SUPPOSED TO WEAR THEM. The things you can wear with shorter skirts just don't work here! So today I present to you my two new skirts, both with a stripey top. Any other ideas, friends?

 This white, ballerina/carrie bradshaw-esque skirt will probably be better in more cocktail party situations, as it feels so FANCY when I see it in person. We have plans to possibly attend a play at the Guthrie next week, perhaps that will be the perfect occasion!

 

top: urban outfitters, skirt: everly, purchased at primp, hat: charlotte russe, bag: vintage, sandals: vintage from it's a date 

 And here's my more recent purchase, this olive green maxi skirt. It's a bit more casual and thus leaves me even more dumbstruck as to what I should do with it. I don't want a mini Michael Kors playing in my head screaming "It looks like she just stepped out of A FARM in the AMISH COUNTRY or something. Just put a BONNET on her head and you've practically got LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE". So how to I make this baby work?

A note to all you Minnesota girls: PLEASE CHECK OUT PRIMP. It's on the corner of Selby & Dale in St. Paul and it's absolutely adorable. They get new items in every day and EVERYTHING is under $100. I've seen a few things in there that you can also find on Ruche.com... but they're cheaper at Primp!! So please, give me your styling tips! I could use them!

Also, I'm pretty sure I need to get lenses put in the glasses I'm wearing in these photos. I popped them on for fun and didn't want to take them off!