creeper

On our way home last night, Bryan and I happened to catch the Halloween edition of Sound Opinions on the radio - and they were, of course, talking about the songs that creeped them out the most. This really got us thinking, so we put our heads together (well, Bryan's vast-knowledge-of-music head and my minute-understanding-of-what-music-even-is head) and put together a little list of creepytown Halloween sounds for you! Happy Halloweenie, and thanks to Bryan for help on this one.

    

Le Chat Du Café Des Artistes - Charlotte Gainsbourg 

When you're dead, you're dead. My top pick.

The Amazing Sounds of Orgy - Radiohead 

Bryan's ultimate #1 top pick.

Pirate Jenny - Nina Simone 

Sound Opinions played this one, I'd never heard it before but DANG. Nina Simone knows what's up.

God's Away on Business - Tom Waits 

Master of demented songs, and a great music video!

Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground 

"It's like a fever dream" - Bryan

What's a Girl To Do - Bat For Lashes 

1:20 in this video seriously haunts my dreams/makes me want to draw 500 million ghosts.

Wicked Game - Chris Isaak 

Another genius pick by Bryan, Chris Isaak with a song that manages to be 100% creepy and 100% sexy at the same time.

b - iamamiwhoami 

Remember when there was speculation that this lady might have been Christina Aguilera? Xtina!

Devil Town - Daniel Johnston.

Disturbing song from a disturbed mind. 

 And, to end on a light note, this silly song for funsies:  

Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell

vitamin e

OH HEYYYYY! Remember that fab weekend I had? And that extra fun Paper Darts party I went to? Well, I didn't want to jinx it but I totally got stopped by the super awesome Ellen Dahl Lawson (of the minneapoline fame) to do a little outfit photo for vita.mn's fashion column, and the photos are up today! Was that enough links for one blog post? SORRY FRIENDS, I'm just excited. Nothing like feeling like a minor internet celebrity (as fleeting as it may be) to brighten my day.

Also, check out that extra hottie next to me! Regan is one awesome lady, and she looked awesome that night. Big congrats to her for being amazing in all aspects of life!

Okay, excitement over, go back to your regularly scheduled blog reading.

cold season (#1)

I'm bringing in some fashionable ladies I know every once in awhile for the next couple months to talk about what's keeping them going now that fall/winter is upon us. They'll be accompanied by an illustration, because I need to make sure I keep drawing now that fall/winter is upon me! First up is Allison Vallant of dotluv. Not only does Alli blog about fashion and photography and a lot of other cool stuff BUT she is also one of my bestest ladies! We are pretty much the most perfect shopping companions for each other, which is a true sign of friendship greatness. Here are Alli's top choices for fall:

"I want a nice black wedge boot that I can wear with both jeans and dresses, but is also in some way Minnesota-winter appropriate. Both fashionable and sensible. It would be great if I could find one with tread! But when am I not thinking about shoes? Never."

"I also cannot stop thinking about rearranging the living room in our apartment. I've been thinking lately that our apartment is a little bit more on the feminine/whimsical side than I would like it, and especially now that winter is upon us, I've been wanting to make it a little more masculine looking. A new rug, and maybe rearranging the art and plants that we have will help for now! There are a few things that I will have to just dream about for now (two Eames shell chairs to replace my yellow upholstered chair, anyone?) but something I can do, is invest in a clean white cow skin rug."

 THANKS ALLI!! Stay tuned, folks. I've got more ladies on the docket for you!

sweathouse

What a weekend I'm having! Do you ever have one of those weekends where you do five million things but still want to do more BUT you also want to collapse on the couch and not do anything for five days? That's how this weekend has been shaping up, and I love it!

Here's a list of some of my weekend activities, for my future self to come back to and look at:
-Halloween-themed wedding in a haunted cave
-Vintage clothing show at the State Fairgrounds with Alli (who should dye her hair pink) and Erin (who has the cutest outfit with a long skirt on her blog right now). I got this amazing awesome sweater (pictured) and also got talked into a winter coat... at least now I have something to look forward to when it snows! I had to cut out early, SO curious to see if the other ladies found anything good!


it's true, i have the pale-est hands / new sweater, new glasses!

-Saw Burial at Thebes at the Guthrie with Bryan after a fab lunch at their Level 5 Cafe. The play was so amazing, it certainly had me in tears by the end of it. Greek tragedies ftw! 

-Went to a party for a new book put out by Paper Darts with an illustration featured ON THE COVER by my buddy/art partner Bill. It was everso much fun. Now I'm back from a breakfast date with plans to watch some Breaking Bad and maybe look at the internets for awhile. Can this weekend last for a few more days?

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?