before & after

as a part of my "explore st. paul" expidition, I took a quick jaunt over to Phalen Park to explore their beach - considering how much I love lakes. I love swimming in them, being near them, on top of them, underneath them... even that particularly lakey smell.

While I didn't swim, I did get an urge to find a new bathing suit. I'd been wanting a cute "not trying to cover up, trying to show off!" one-piece so bad last year but never found the right one. I'm now wondering wear I can find any retro style bathing suits.. delias has a few, but I want to expand my horizons. Suggestions?

also I watched That Thing You Do, Love in the Afternoon, and two episodes of 30 Rock today because I have some sort of weird stomach flu/food poisoning/indigestion. Rock.

playing favorites

1. Dovima, 2. Le Petite Prince (Detail), 1966, 3. a curious cookie, 4. We want spring, 5. birdPATTERN_green, 6. white shirts, anyone?, 7. Bunneh, 13 Days Old, 8. chat-gris, 9. Simple

instead of update my blog with something of interest, I have to get ready for work - today marks a whole week of nonstop workfest, squeezing in a second part time job just like I squeeze my giant man feet into cuter smaller shoes and they don't quite fit but really, they look so cute and what's a little pain in exchange for cute shoes?

so here is the part where I throw some of my flickr faves down and run off to throw on some pants and guzzle down my coffee. The theme of this flickr fave post is the weird parallels I find after favorite-ing.

mug shots

I am loving these mason jars bryan's mom gave us. They look best when filled with iced tea or gin & tonics - and someday I hope to make mojitos in them. Isn't there something so appealing about filling a mason jar with an icy cold beverage and sipping it slowly while watching Badlands? That movie is the perfect example of simplistic folksy beauty.

Want some? You can get mason jars all over the internet for the cheaps! I like these ones or this one - just like mine!


Also, I've been reading a lot of food blogs recently - Serious Eats for national coverage and The Heavy Table for Minnesota coverage. The Heavy Table has really been making me yearn to go to this new place called Burger Jones. The White Trash burger sounds like heaven.

new stuff in the shop!

Alli and I spent the day today photographing some new items for the shop - the ones above are my finds, but alli's got about five gazillion more things listed, so head on over. Tons of them are totally just in time for a great summer. It was painful for me to take this dress off, once I put it on I was instantly in love.

I am on a hunt for a new pair of sandals, speaking of summertime. I've been trying not to spend money for the rest of the month, but it's hard to resist when there are tons of cheapie knock offs available on GoJane.com - like this and this and this. HELP.

on the street where you live

i did this the other day as a thank you note for someone. it was fun to find just the right house (this one is on summit ave, the prettiest street in st. paul) on flickr, and then carefully reconstruct it. I think I was kind of inspired by film the blanks, since this very clean look is not exactly what I normally do. ALSO I DID NOT TRACE, I promise. Everything was eyeballed or simplified from the original photo.

Seriously, though. Take a street view tour of Summit. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

shopgirls

alli and i have been mulling over starting a little vintage store on etsy for about a month now, and it is FINALLY OPEN. We've got just a few things up right now, but soon there will be more. Keep your browsers open.

holy merde!

Gary from Gary on Vimeo.

I am working on some very exciting things today, but in the meantime here is a totally sweet and amazingly well done little short that my cousin posted one her blog. Thanks, Amanda!

trash to treasure

wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles! Look what was sitting by the dumpsters when the boy and I came back from picking up a new tv stand (to be seen soon) and breakfast at Mickey's! It's a little beat up here and there - but this might not be a problem, as I'm now considering painting the table tops another color. Something like this, but without the yellow legs.

OH SAINT PAUL. Thank you for your glorious dumpster finds.

Also, I realize there has been a terrible lot of apartment-related photo posts... so here is my most recent blog of choice, pony and pink! A cute girl and a cute boy, posting their cute clothin'.

#4

tired of sparse photos of my new apartment yet? TOO BAD, I CAIN'T GIT ENOUGH OF 'EM!

But this one has a sad story. The tragic tale of the couple who don't have a television stand. The horrible recounting of a young man who, in desperation to play his xbox, had to fashion a tv stand out of a cardboard box - which, granted, was a stroke of genius. But this cannot last.

We're looking for a replacement, obviously. Ikea is the quickest, easiest choice... but after seeing the sweetest mid century cabinet system at Up Six we have been casting our eyes across the depths of craigslist, attempting to find something like half of this unit:


(from surfing cowboys)