i'm not weird

I think I found my new mantra!

(via here & here)

shopping cart

I haven't done a shopping cart post in a while & I'd say my cart is pretty full, so this is long overdue...

Ikea

VILMIE RUND Throw $12.99

SARITA Curtains in black $9.99

BÄRBAR Tray $3.99

BÄRBAR Tray $5.99

SLOM Bottle with Stopper $2.99

Anthropologie

B&W Wall Hook $18.00

Monogrammed Mugs $6.00

Clothbound Penguin Classics For Children $16.99

(Peter Pan, Wind in the Willows & The Secret Garden)

Now it's time to stop being selfish & start buying Christmas presents!

eurotrip : london

Last stop, London!

Okay, so I kind of cheated with this song. It isn't really about London, but it was recorded there. Obviously I'm a little LCD Soundsystem obsessed (as seen here & here & here), but this version really blows me away. I could totally picture myself walking around London to this song & I have a feeling it will be very important to me in a few months. I can't tell you why yet -- it's still a secret! :)

Ps. I hope you enjoyed this little musical eurotrip! I had a lot of fun putting these posts together. That's what it's all about, no? Nein? Nae? Ne?

(paper cut map via)

eurotrip : spain

Now off to España...

Foals- Spanish Sahara (Bar 9 Remix) by E.N. Supertrend

I already had my little tangent about dub-step so I'll keep this brief -- "Spanish Sahara" is a perfect example of how dub-step took a song from zero to 100. Sorry Foals, but it's true & you know it.

I could totally get lost in this song while lying in a hammock on the beaches of Ibiza :)

Download the cool version of this song HERE.

(photo via)

eurotrip : rome

Next stop is Rome, the only stop of this tour that I've actually had the pleasure of visiting before.

When I think of Rome & Italy in general, I think of pure beauty. If this version of "Rome" doesn't capture that Italian essence, I don't know what can. Again, I think it might fall into that "hauntingly beautiful" category that I love oh so much, so obviously I had to share.

Phoenix 'Rome' (Neighbors with Devendra Banhart RMX) by TopmanCTRL

Download this track for free HERE.

(photo via My Funny Eye -- quite possibly my new favorite blog!)

eurotrip : paris

I've had travel & Europe on my mind a lot lately & I think I've pin-pointed where this obsession for all things Euro is coming from. After scanning my "Recently Added" list on iTunes I realized I have a lot of songs with European influences & I'm kinda obsessed with them all.

First stop paris...

"Paris Makes Me Feel Like Dancing," Something A La Mode

(via)

giving thanks on thanksgiving

Thursday

1. Family

Sometimes family-time over the holidays can feel overwhelming, but I am really blessed with a great, supportive family. I know that they are proud of me & that is a wonderful blessing. 

2. Health

This is one of those things that you don't really appreciate until you see it taken away. The past year has been filled with some amazing miracles as well as some people that didn't come out as lucky. I don't think about this nearly enough, but my body is pretty much able to do anything it wants. Others aren't so lucky & I should be more thankful for this wonderful gift.

3. Experiences

Basically, I'm thankful for me! I've had some great experiences & influencers in my life & I've also worked really hard myself at becoming a better person. It's an ongoing process, but I'm happy to admit that I think I'm pretty awesome & I hope that others are able to see the value in themselves as well.

Ps. Isn't that sign above amazing? It is from my great grandfather's medical practice. There was another sign indicating that house calls were $2.00 & night calls were $5.00. Unbelievable.

giving thanks on wednesday

Wednesday

1. My Parents

Im not just saying this because I woke up to $100 worth of twenty's slid under my bedroom door this morning, but my parents are pretty awesome. They've done so much for me & my siblings over the years & instilled some really great morals & values as well. I'm so lucky to have them & I hope one day I'm as great of a parent as they are.

2. Girlfriends

I'm really pretty terrible when it comes to keeping in touch with old friends. I haven't been home nearly enough in the past 5 years & some of my best friends I haven't even seen in over a year. It's embarrassing & something I would really like to work on. Wednesday night I had the most perfect pre-gaming session with about 12 girls from high school. Many of them I had not seen in years, but it was quite amazing how things just slid right back into place. I had a great adolescence & I've got these girls to thank! They're an absolute blast & some of the sweetest people I know! 

(ps. I'm 2nd from the right in my prom picture)

3. St. Louis

St. Louis really is this weird, unique bubble. I give it a hard time once & awhile, but I really love this place & I'm happy to call it home. After being away for almost a year it was so funny to see how the people & experiences never really change & those strange quirks are always here to stay. In the words of Nelly, "I'm from the Lou & I'm proud!" :)

giving thanks on tuesday

Tuesday

1. Beast

There are few things I love more than going home & apparently Lion's Choice is one of them. I made my mom take me straight from the airport to indulge in my favorite roast beef sandwich. Although the food is great, I think I just like the place because it reminds me of home & there is comfort in that. Whenever my siblings & I come home, it's not a matter of if we are going to go to Lion's Choice, but home many times we'll go. It never let's me down & I miss it when I'm away.

2. Surprises

One of my Dad's friends gave him 2 front row, mid-rink tickets to Saturday's Blues game & somehow he thought for sure that I would have no interest in going with him & sitting in the best seats of all time. He is just so clueless sometimes! I'm really excited. This will be my first ever Blue's game & I'd say that these amazing tickets will make up for the 23 years of hockey games that I missed out on. I'm looking forward to spending father/daughter time with my dad as well because I know he'll buy me as much beer & junk food as I want. Best Dad ever!  :)

3. Happiness

Last night, happiness to me was a warm kitty & a good book. Although I'm more of a dog lover, I'm a total animal lover as a whole. Kitty can be quite sassy at times, but I know she loves me & is happy to accept my scratches. She stole my attention away from the fabulous The Picture of Dorian Gray" a few times, but I forgave her & scratched her some more anyways. Kind of lame for my first night back home, but it was exactly what I was hoping for!

giving thanks on monday

I have a feeling I'm going to go into total couch potato mode when I get back home to St. Louis & I'm also going to try to stay as disconnected as I can over the next few days. I  didn't plan ahead with posts like I usually do & my parents are those techno-phobe types that keep the computer in the deep, dark crevasses of of our basement. As a result,  my plan is to keep the blogging pretty simple this week & seeing that this week just happens to be Thanksgiving week, I thought it would be nice to share 3 things that I was thankful for from the previous day.

Monday

1. My bright red rainboots

They saved me from the monsoon I experienced on the way to work & the awful Chicago sewage systems. I had quite a good time splashing through puddles with them as well!

2. This silly little blog

I'll touch on this more some other time, but I really started this for myself. I never expected many people to look at it (& I hardly expect that many do), but the random outreach & encouragement from strangers along the way has been something wonderful that I never expected.

3. Joslyn & her awesome giveaway

Over the years this wonder woman has turned into one of my biggest role models. She has a great blog, is a wonderful mother & has style that is to die for. She introduces so many cool things to my life, like Debbie Carlos, a wonderfully talented photographer from Chicago.  (So obviously she's awesome).

shiny toy guns

Talk about a statement piece! I love it.

(via ModCloth)

forget me not

Glass Vaults is a duo of New Zealanders who released their 5-track EP, Glass, on June 16, 2010. Perhaps it's the Chicago Winter than is finally settling in, but "Forget Me Not" seems to give me chills every time I listen to the song. The whole album has a very mellow, yet moody feel to it with minimal lyrics. You can download the entire EP for free HERE.

i wish he was my boyfriend

Boyfriend, Best Coast (Ghostwaves Edit)

No hidden messages in this post. I just like the song :)

By the way, Best Coast is coming to Lincoln Hall on February 8th withe Wavves & I kind of want to go. Any takers?

we don't sleep when the sun goes down

"We don't sleep when the sun goes down

We don't waste no precious time"

-Teenage Crime, Adrian Lux

This would have totally been my high school anthem had it come out 5 years ago. Speaking of which, 5 year high school reunion this Friday. Weird.

P.s. I kind of really hate the music video.

lookout weekend

"Lookout weekend cuz here I come

Because weekends were made for fun"

- Lookout Weekend, Kid Sister ft. Nina Sky

(via)

food for thought

just keep swimming. just keep swimming.

Made me smile :)

(via)

heartbreaker

What a little stud.

(via The Sartorialist)

boot bling

 Have you seen these boot anklets? I actually kind of like this trend. It's something unexpected & not super flashy. I question whether I'm edgy enough to pull off this look though.

(via ShopBop)

so haute

I'm so in love with Nicole's living room from So Haute. Her aesthetic is exactly the look that I love. Mostly cool colors, slightly feminine & just enough pops of hot pink. I especially love her photography & blend of silver & gold frames & decor.

(via)

nasty gal

Apparently the Google Content Network thinks I'm a prime candidate for the Nasty Gal online store because their ads keep popping up everywhere. Well Google, I'm pretty sure your targeting is dead on. I'm eyeing so many gorgeous items on their site right now...

My birthday is exactly one month away & while I don't like making a big fuss of it, I do like using my birthday as an excuse to treat myself to a few new things. Now I just need to figure out how to narrow down the list.

P.S. I'm loving the models bright red lipstick. I tried pulling off this look over the weekend, but I think towards the end of the night I was too drunk & just ended up looking like a hot mess.

my favorite color

"My favorite color is shiny"

-Marc Jacobs

How amazing is this dress? & that quote?

(via)

why is life worth living?

Some food for thought: What makes your life worth living?

Over the weekend I watched "Manhattan" for the first time. I have a very love/hate relationship with Woody Allen. Sometimes he's just too much for me, but other times he totally captures something. I just haven't quite figured out what that something is. Human nature maybe?

I really love the clip above. It is certainly pleasant to dwell on the things that make your life worth living.

Live concerts. Puppies. Indulgent meals. New babies. Walking around the city (especially at night). Old friendships. New friendships. "Born Slippy"...

Those would certainly make my list.

something unexpected pt. iv

Frightened Rabbit might have been the one show that I was least excited for, but mostly out of naïvety. I had heard good things about them & liked a handful of songs, but I had never really given them a good listen.

 The concert was in early November, so I was still riding my live music high & couldn't possibly turn down a friend with a spare ticket & another chance to bask in the greatness that is a live concert.

Best decision I ever made. Frightened Rabbit totally went above & beyond my expectations. The House of Blues was jam packed with people of all ages that seemed to be enjoying the show just as much as me, if not more.

But despite all of the fun & dancing, the show made me really, really sad. I mean honestly, the line "I hate when I feel like this & I never hated you" is pretty freaking intense, especially when done  acoustically. It reminded me why I am where I am with my musical tastes right now & why there is a natural progression when it comes to likes & dislikes.

A year ago, I would have been all over Frightened Rabbit. I ate up all things indie rock & really felt a personal connection with the music, which is great. I felt like it got me & it was comforting to know that other people felt emotions similar to mine.

If you follow my blog or Twitter feed, it's pretty obvious that I've gravitated less towards indie rock & more towards electro-dance music in the past year. If you ask me why, I'll say it's because dance music is fun. And it is.

Seeing Frightened Rabbit certainly left me with some sad moments, but is it weird that I've kind of missed those? Since the show, I've found myself going back to some of my old favorites, with a little disco thrown in here & there (of course)! It just goes to show how wonderfully dynamic music can be & it's nice to know that you can always find that little corner of the music world that has exactly what you need at the moment.

something unexpected pt. iii

I've alway been a little unsure of dub-step. To me, it's that bridge between hip-hop & electronica & I'm not quite certain how I feel about that. Obviously I love electronica, but hip-hop makes me slightly uneasy & I've never really embraced it. I feel like I'm way too much of a suburban white girl to ever really fit in with hip-hop culture. I went to a Catholic all-girls high school, for Christ sake!

Rusko was a different experience & he totally changed my opinion about dub. I had his album O.M.G.! prior to the show & actually really enjoyed a lot of the songs. Something still made me slightly nervous about going to see him live though. How the hell am I supposed to dance to this music? Would I be dressed too preppy? This could be a total failure...

Everything changed when I walked up the glorious staircase at the Metro. I fit in. Everyone fit in. Sure, there were a lot of people that must have barely made the 18 & up cutoff, but none of that mattered when Rusko started spinning. 

That boy brought it! I had some of the best few hours of live music & definitely contributed to the giant mass of movement & sweat on the dance floor. So much so, that I managed to sweat through my corduroy jeans -- it's possible, I promise (& quite disgusting).

Rusko really stood out as a live performance because he was able to change my opinion about a genre of music as a whole. Not an easy feat. I can be pretty opinionated & stuck in my ways when it comes to the music I like. So props to Rusko for proving me wrong, showing me an unforgettable night & turning me on to a whole new realm of music.

...Oh. And did I mention I won these tickets for free on Chirp Radio? Double win!

Enjoy a little Woo Boost!

(I have to admit, I was pretty happy to hear the familiar sound of Imogen Heap that night as well)

something unexpected pt. ii

I had seen Local Natives a few months prior at Pitchfork & was really impressed by their performance. For some idiotic reason, I was too blindsided by some of the other acts coming to Chicago that I didn't even think twice about getting tickets to their October show at the Metro.

Lucky for me, this was not the case with my friend. He got a pair of tickets & I was the lucky recipient to the other half.

The night started off quite well. I enjoyed the two opening acts, but I did feel a little pressure to keep up with the boozing as my friend had been drinking all day. About one song into Local Natives' set, my friend "went to the bathroom". About five songs after that, I got a text from him telling me to "come down the street to Vines".

Excuse me? You just walked (read "stumbled") out of an awesome concert & left me all alone?!

That was my first solo concert experience & I still had a blast. Mostly in part to the incredibly talented Local Natives & probably a small fraction to the vodka & waters I had been drinking.

I've wandered around festivals by myself before, but there was something different about watching a set start to finish (mostly) by yourself. I still danced & sang out loud & I had a really, really good time. That's comforting to know. I don't feel out of place being alone & I'll be perfectly content with my own company if I ever am scrambling to find someone to go to a show with me.

Local Natives wasn't quite the experience I was expecting, but the show was great & I learned a little something about myself along the way.

Thanks, Dan!

something unexpected pt. i

I saw 11 concerts in the month of October. It was amazing. Seriously, I can't think of a better way to spend my time than to go to a concert. The rock gods really shined down upon Chicago that month.

My line-up of shows alone included some of my all-time favorite acts like Deadmau5, LCD Soundsystem, Chromeo & Miike Snow. Those 4 shows alone (granted, I saw Deadmau5 & LCD Soundsystem twice) almost overwhelmed me.

I had so much excitement built up for the acts listed above, that I kind of let some other concerts slip by. By some wonderful stroke of luck, I was able to stumble upon some other shows that turned out rather unexpectedly. Not only did I get to experience some great live music, but I learned a few life lessons along the way.

This is a little out of the ordinary from my typical Music Monday posts, but keep an eye out later today for 3 really stand-out shows from the month.

Starting with...

(photo via)

weekend warrior

Happy weekend! 

I have no real plans for the weekend, but I kind of want to channel this little monkey man & lay out in the park for a while.

You'll never guess what he's made out of...

Any ideas?

How about now?

 It's flip flops! Thousands of them! Can  you believe it?

Learn more about this Sao Paulo installation here.