My little brother graduated from high school a few months ago, and we were able to get family pictures done for the first time since our wedding. Love these so much.
My little brother graduated from high school a few months ago, and we were able to get family pictures done for the first time since our wedding. Love these so much.
Love the message behind this. It seems like we’re told from a very young age that we can be anything we want to be, but then as we get older, as we get closer to actually being grown ups and trying to decide what we should be doing with our lives, we seem to be told instead that so many of our aspirations are childish, and that we need to grow up and get a “real job”.
It’s true that not everyone can be painter, or a writer or spend all their time outside with horses, but certainly some people are able to. And if some people are able to, then if you dedicate yourself to being the best writer, painter or horse whisperer you can be, then who’s to say you can’t be one of them?
You can find the original cartoon here.
Here are a few things that are making me happy right now:
The complete collection of Grimm’s fairy tales, a first birthday present for my niece.
West Coast, best coast. Love her.
This list of the top 20 TED Talks, I’m slowly working my way through all of them. The range of topics is really interesting, and I like how they are able to take a unique point of view on everyday experiences and really open your eyes to different perspectives.
A sweet bridal shower favour, rose shaped petal soaps
A few things that are making me happy right now:
This list of countries that Canadians are eligible to work and live in via working holidays visas. There are so many amazing places in the world, I want to live everywhere. And if you want something bad enough, you’ll figure out a way to do it. There are a lot of opportunities out there if you are interested enough to seek them out, and brave enough to take advantage of them.
The fact that it is officially spring, flowers are starting to bloom and I can wear dresses and sandals without freezing to death.
Cherry blossoms on my neighbour’s tree on a beautiful California day
I came across The Dictionary of Obscure sorrows when I was creeping around the web one day. It is a dictionary of made up words that aim to define feelings or occurrences that have no real definition.
This amazing Eyeko eyeliner is life changing. I couldn’t use liquid eyeliner before because it took so long to get the tiny, wispy little strokes even, and I usually ended up looking like Derek had punched me in the eye. Eyeko has a nice, thick tip so it’s like drawing on your eyeliner with a Sharpie. It is way easier to get a consistent line, and it stays on all day.
Sometimes I get free samples from Sephora, and it reminds me that the world is a lovely place full of wonderful people
A few things that are making me happy right now:
This book excerpt about Marilyn Monroe’s personal effects. She was very un-materialistic, and very slender, apparently. I don’t know why everything about her is so interesting, but I’m obsessed. It’s easy to look at all of the glamorous images of her and forget that she was a real person, so I love learning more about what she was really like.
This: Bulletproof Weeks by Matt Nathanson. I can’t stop listening to it.
When your husband goes to Mexico for a week and knows just what to bring you home as a present. Flavoured tequilas for shots, adding to coffee, and as a tequila maker once told me “putting on your kid’s waffles before you send them off to school.” Solid advice.
This amazing miracle in a bottle. I’ve tried a lot of frizz fighting serums in my day, and they usually leave you with that slicked back yet puffy look that is so equal parts chic and attractive. This one can go on wet or dry hair, and make your hair shiny and frizz-free, but never greasy. It is my new favourite product, we are best friends.
Just one favourite today. My mom painted this for Derek and I as a gift for our first anniversary. We met in Hawaii, and all of the signs point to places that are special to us.
Lanikai is my favourite beach, Derek used to work at Sand Island, and the Barefoot Bar is the place where my parents met him for the first time.
I love it.
And also, my mom has mad skills.
Here are a few things that are making me happy right now:
This article about living in Hawaii. Makes me happy/homesick.
My co-worker went to Italy for a few weeks and brought me back some truffle risotto. Amazing.
I love discovering news words like this one:
fernweh – (noun) a craving for travel; being homesick for a place you’ve never been.
Also, I have recently discovered this amazing spray that has actual magical powers. I’ve been kind of hating on my hair lately because no matter what I do it seems kind of dry and frizzy. I tried using WEN for a few months, and as always happens when I try to do nice things for my hair, it completely rebelled and looked worse than ever.
Apparently my hair is still 13 years old and only likes things that are mean to it. But I tried It’s a 10 spray with Keratin last night, and my hair is soft, shiny and frizz free, and for the day after I wash my hair that is almost unheard of.
It usually takes at least two nights of me sleeping on/aggressively rubbing my head against my satin pillowcase to achieve this kind of sleek manageability. It’s a bit expensive, but worth it if these are going to be the consistent results.
Here are a few things that are making me happy right now:
I’ve been looking for a pair of black booties for a long time, one that is cute enough to wear out, but also has a low enough heel that I could wear them all day at work without wanting to fling myself off the roof. I found these ones from Asos a few weeks ago and I love them, they are comfy and cute, and there isn’t a hint of fringe anywhere on or around them.
This might seem very obvious to every other person in the world, but I had an epiphany a few weeks ago. I have about 5 chiffon button up shirts that I love, and are perfect for work, but I never wear them, because they are really sheer. I’ve tried wearing tank tops underneath them, but it’s hard to have two shirts tucked in, one of them is always rolling up and it’s bulky.
Sometimes I’ll see a woman on the street wearing a sheer white button up tucked into jeans without her whole bra showing and without looking like she is smuggling something under their shirt, and I think that she must be a wizard.
For years I’ve been seeing the cotton body suits at American Apparel and I always wondered “who is buying those?” and then last week I was like OF COURSE! Everyone but me is buying them! Anyways, I bought a couple, and my whole life is better already.
Semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies from Specialty’s are a thing of beauty. I have to bodily restrain myself from going in to get one every time I walk past, but sometimes I can’t resist, and then I thoroughly enjoy every warm chocolatey delicious morsel to the full capacity of my soul.
I hadn’t been loving my makeup in quite a while, no matter what I seemed to do it always looked the same, and not very good in my opinion, so I had a little bit of a “me” day and splurged on some new makeup from Sephora.
I actually just went in to get eyeliner, but all of a sudden I was replacing almost every product I use.
The verdict so far: I love the Moonshadow eyeshadow pallet, the Tarte cheek stain is amazing, and the Kat von D Trooper eyeliner is life changing. Go buy it immediately. It goes on smoothly without the dragginess of a lot of liquid liners, and the color stays all day without budging.
I don’t know that the beauty blender was an absolute necessity though, in essence I feel like I paid $20 for a sponge.
Here are a few things that are making me happy right now:
Surfing videos are one of my favourite things ever. I love watching the waves, and seeing someone gliding gracefully along one just relaxes me, instantly. Some of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had are where I’m in a really air conditioned, dark room, with tons of covers, watching muted surf videos as I fall asleep. Try it, I promise you’ll sleep like a baby.
These nail polish strips from Essie. I saw them and wanted them immediately and then I left them sitting in my bathroom cabinet for two months because they seemed very tricksy to apply. A few weeks ago I had some extra free time (thanks BART strike) and tried them out.
They were actually not hard to apply at all, and they lasted a week before they starting chipping, I added a top coat as well. It’s like having tiny little love letters on your nails.
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| And some calla lillies I picked up at the farmer’s market. Treat yo self. |
I’m re-reading the Virgin Suicides. Love this:
“The rest of her face-the pulpy lips, the blonde sideburn fuzz, the nose with its candy-pink translucent nostrils- registered dimly as the two blue eyes lifted him on a sea wave and held him suspended. ‘She was the still point of the turning world’ he told us, quoting Eliot, whose Collected Poems he had found on the shelf of the detoxification center.
For the eternity that Lux Lisbon looked at him, Trip Fontaine looked back, and the love he felt at that moment, truer than all the subsequent loves because it never had to survive real life, still plagued him even now in the desert, with his looks and health wasted.”
I read somewhere that the best love affairs are the ones we never have, because the other person will always be perfect to us, never diminished or found to be flawed. This excerpt from the Virgin Suicides really reiterates that to me.
Things that are making me happy right now:
The Feminist Taylor Swift Twitter account. Check it out, seriously.
After my visit to the La Brea Tar Pits a few weeks ago, I rewatched My Girl 2. This song gets me, every. single. time. Sob.
This recipe for Lasagna Timpano from The Food in my Beard Blog. I didn’t know foods like this actually existed, but it makes me so happy to know that this bold innovator is out there coming up with cheesy, fantastic ways for me to not fit into my jeans anymore.
And this, because let’s be honest, I have an awkwardly persistent crush on Lana Del Ray, and it’s not going anywhere.
