#loveit: Houndstooth

one of my favorite prints is houndstooth. i've been coveting a houndstooth dress for ages, since my birthday a few years ago when a friend wore her jacket of the same print, and i fell in love with it. i love that it's classic and modern all at once.

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LOVE this chair. i want it in my living room.

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this dress is amazing and such a throwback. i feel like i'd fit right in on mad men if i wore this, which is awesome.

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these are some pretty hot shoes, yo. loves it.

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not even gonna lie. i just bought this dress. on sale. 

i can't WAIT to wear it. 

what's your favorite print? are you known to rock some houndstooth? ;) 

music & me: runaways

the killers and i have had a strange little relationship.

i avoided them purposefully when "somebody told me" was released, based solely on the fact that sometimes, i avoid mainstream music, and OY, they were everywhere.

but then, "mr. brightside" was released.

and i loved it.
[sidenote: i find brandon flowers absurdly attractive, eyeliner or not, dandy or not, hipster-wear or not.]

then there was "when you were young," which, i will admit, is probably one of my favorite songs of the last decade.

however: the songs that followed up "when you were young" lost me. they weren't my cup of tea, and i sort of stopped following the killers for a few years.

i am happy to say that, with their most recent single, they've won me back over, and i've enjoyed the few tracks i've listened to from their new album, battle born.

here's the video for "runaways":

i love the simple treatment of the song, and i'm looking forward to their next single.

writing: nanowrimo 2012

i'll be participating in national novel writing month (NaNoWriMo) again this november. this will be the second one in a row for me. last year, i NaNo'd in 2 weeks, because i ignored my need for sleep and also ended up getting a sinus infection that knocked me out of commission regarding work attendance for 2 days, so i wrote 10k in a single day.

i am lucky that i have the ability to write quickly, but also pretty cleanly, so it wasn't a total mess when i was done, but i made one rather massive mistake last year:

i wrote out of order.

i'm a chronological writer. it's how i work. i always have an ending point in mind, and usually a few major plot points determined; i let the more minor details work themselves out (and am usually pleased to find that because i let the characters boss me around a bit, the story has more depth and detail that i would initially have thought).

so, all my 8000 docs with various scenes written on them from last year?

yep, they are still all disjointed and sitting in a folder on my hard drive. i simply don't have the patience to fix/connect/adjust everything that it needs, so until i really have the time, that story will sit there, unworked. (boo, hiss.)

[side note: i have scrivener now, so organization is much easier.]

i am planning on continuing a project that i've already started for nano this year, which is technically against the rules, but i only have about 6-8k written of it, and that's a far cry from complete, so it is what it is. it's my goal to hit the nano goal of 50K written in november by about 3-4 days before the end of the month so that perhaps i'll be closer to 60K written for the month when everything is said and done.

what is this project, you ask?

it's a pretty angsty, dark and twisty little thing. nothing supernatural, no fantasy elements like the project i'll be querying soon. it's my (rather emotional) take on a classic boy-meets-girl story, and i really love the characters.

the protagonist is a boy.

this makes me happy-happy-happy.

that said, the playlist that helps me write the story? is primarily girl singers.

here's the song that inspired the whole shebang, performed live by the girl who wrote it:

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i think i love you like a car crash, dear

i don't want your wreckage, but i find i cannot steer

my eyes away now

in fact, miss nalick's entire second album has been vastly impacting regarding the story, the characters, and their development.

i'll link my nano profile in the right column over there,  but for now:

which songs inspire you?

fast 5: countries i'd like to visit

i love to travel. whether that means a weekend getaway or a quick road trip to the next town over, i don't care - i just love it.

at this point, there are only a handful of cities in the US that my family and i haven't been able to visit together, but once we've hit those up, i have a short list of countries that are top priority once we are able to "see the world."

5 countries i want to visit

 

1. England

i'm a total anglophile, so i'm pretty sure i'd lose my fangirly mind wandering london. the beatles, fish and chips, the Queen, and reminders of Harry Potter & Doctor Who everywhere! SQUEEEEEE!

 

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2. Spain

this is the country of my familial origins, i love the cuisine, and i love the architecture. 

 

Barcelona

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3. Italy

all of it. honestly, i wish there was more italian lineage in my bloodlines. also, why are most from-italy italian men so attractive? jeez.

 

The Colosseum, Rome

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4. Australia

i realize the place is huge, but i'd take a tour of melbourne and/or sydney. :)

 

P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way

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5. Greece

specifically athens and santorini. the history & culture would make it a perfect place for my family to visit.

 

Santorini

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i'd also like to go to Paris and Prague, as well as Sweden and Japan, and my husband would probably like to visit Germany. also! o canada, we have not forgotten you - Vancouver, specifically. we're trying to plan a european trip for 2013 or 2014, but i'm not sure whether that's going to happen. crossing my fingers, though!

where do you want to visit?

fast 5: please go away

fast 5 will be a thing where i just blog a random list. i don't know how often i'll make said lists, but this one's been in my brains for the last few days, so here we go:

 

 

5 bands or songs i would like a reprieve from:

after living in austin: anything by nirvana

after living in nashville: anything by pearl jam
(apparently every major city's radio staff has a favorite grunge band)

young the giant, "cough syrup"

cage the elephant, "shake me down"

fun., "we are young"

dear every djs everywhere:

these songs are dead. after all, the youngest of these is from what, 2010? ok, maybe early, early 2011. why-oh-why are these still on heavy rotation?

i'm not saying to never play these songs/bands again. but my ears would appreciate a reprieve so that maybe, just maybe, i can start to like these songs and bands again. even six months would suffice. until this happens, please trust that i will either change the station or, if that is not an option, i will roll my eyes for the entirety of any of the aforementioned (with rare exception).

respectfully, a fan of a lot of current music,
b helm

p.s. bands with punctuation in their names are ridiculous, though (for right now), i'm ok with "some nights."
p.s.s. i do love me some dave grohl, and his attachment to nirvana is not lost on me, but really, enough with "smells like teen spirit," guys. really.


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which songs do you wish radio would forget about, temporarily or not?

4 Simple Goals

a friend of mine follows the blog A Beautiful Mess, which i, myself, have recently started following as well. in a post there, they spoke of coming up with four action-oriented goals for the remainder of the year - they should be things you actively do regularly before 2013 is upon us.

as i read my friend's goals, as well as those listed on A Beautiful Mess, i was struck with the simplicity of them, and how ingenious it is to think of 4 items that are easy to do but also improve your quality of life with minimal effort.

and how that minimal required effort is often why those things get pushed to the side or even off the to-do list entirely.

life's about to change in a big way for my family and me, and after spending the afternoon thinking about this simple idea, i've come up with my own four simple goals. (i'm a bit wordy here. sorry.)

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one: go outside. 

on november 17th, we're moving back to texas. this isn't news, not really, and we're excited about it, but here's the deal: tennessee is gorgeous. i mean, like, jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and in a way that texas is not. texas is all rolling hills and pale green and brown with lovely blue skies. tennessee is mountains topped with treelines and deep greens and grays. 

i need to get out in it more while it's available to me. and so i shall. perhaps i'll snap some photos to blog as documentation of said gorgeousness.

two: spend my morning commute in quiet. 

several years ago, i was an active churchgoer. for reasons i won't list out here, i am not any longer. but at one point in my history, a leader challenged me to spend time in what he called silence and solitude, and the mental clarity that i was able to garner as a result of spending intentional time alone and in my own kind of quiet was impressive.

my morning commute isn't terribly long, but it is arguably the only me-time i get every day where i am absolutely alone; therefore, it will do. so now, more often than not, i hope my mornings are just me, some good tunes, and perhaps a bit more mental clarity.

three: have quality time with both my husband and daughter every day. 

i know that this seems like a no brainer, but frankly, life is busy and it's easy to let this slide.

but i shouldn't.

so, let me clarify a couple things, because for me, there are two different meanings at play here:

for time spent with my daughter, quality time means letting go of being mama for a minute and playing and engaging her without any real direction. just be with her, love on her, and enjoy every second, because she's growing up too damn fast. for my husband, it means actively devoting time to him. whether that's reading together or watching some documentary with him because it's suddenly struck his interest, or debating (ok, usually agreeing 100%) about politics, i don't care, i just don't want us to be in our own little worlds every night after spending all day apart, and it's easy to let that happen. after all, he's incredibly intelligent and i think he's pretty cute. time spent in his company is never wasted.

quality time. the end.

four: watch doctor who. 

i am sure someone somewhere is laughing at me for this, but the thing is? the happiness that doctor who brings me is deliciously nerdy and i've never experienced such deep-seated love for a fictional character as i have for the doctor. so, despite the fact that the show has also (recently) proven that it can rip my heart into shreds, i adore it.

i really do.

and i have 4 seasons left, and a pretty epic crush on david tennant. so, yay for nerdy british television. best.

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i'm hoping that next time i blog about this subject, i've actually acted on this list. outlook is good, i'd say. :)

do you have any simple goals you'd like to reach by year end?

#loveit: scarves

so, i have to say: i'm a texas girl.

ah, texas: where it's hotter than hell at least 8 months a year, where you can't really buy a decent coat, and where you learn to layer even in the spring because the weather is schizophrenic.

side note: because it's so dang hot outside, often i find myself carrying a jacket in the heat of summer, because folks can be a little overly excited with the air conditioning.

anyway.

maybe that absurd level of heat is why i adore winter clothes so much - pea coats and boots and sweaters... i love it all. perhaps this is because i rarely got to utilize them as a kid. who knows? however, i wanted to take a moment and discuss one of my most favorite cool-weather accessories.

the scarf.

le sigh.

i love them all. i love that you can dress them up or down, and that they come in so many varied patterns and materials. i love that there are about 10000 ways to wear them (though my favorite is what i call the "alfie" style - more on that in a bit).

i only own a handful of scarves, because... well, it's hot in texas, yo. but i was thrilled beyond belief to be able to make use of my paltry collection last winter here in nashville.

here are a few scarves that i really love, all courtesy of pinterest. :)

this one happens to include one of my favorite colors - teal.

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 i love the bright colors of this one, and the flower is a great addition. 

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and now, for something completely different: 

i love the muted tones of this one: 

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and for those of you who are not familiar, here's alfie (and an example of my favorite way to wear a scarf): 

(the 2004 incarnation, anyway.)

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what's your favorite cool-weather accessory?