It was Miss Scarlett at the Obama fundraiser with my friend Ruben!

I'm very jealous of my friend Ruben who has accomplished one of my life goals (see the life list to the right - I have never had my picture taken with a celeb). He also did so with a lovely celebrity whom I admire. Painfully jealous.

I would definitely need some horn-rimmed glasses and a brown sweater vest as well

Does anyone else miss the non-electronic library checkout system? I know that self checkout is convenient and practical but it's so unromantic. 

So why not recreate the nostalgic version at home? To preface this, I'm not at all anal about the process of lending out my books. In this day and age, I'm thrilled to know others that are also big readers and I enjoy lending out my collection. I do, however, love the idea of having my own personal library. Remember the little pockets and the sign in/sign out cards? And the stubby pencils, too? Apparently you can now buy your own home kits!

Barnes & Noble also has a kit but the one above is the most authentically retro I have found. It even has a date stamper (and, of course, a stubby pencil). 

You don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

As I'm sure you've all heard by now, the amazing novelty turned art form of instant Polaroid is no more. Film production will stop next year and camera production has already halted. Polaroid cameras and pictures have always held a fascination for me and, of course, now that I finally have time to indulge in this hobby (I swear, the past 10 years of my life have been a blur), it is being discontinued.

Sad.

I have decided to take as many pictures as I can before this happens but, in the interest of the future, I have investigated some alternatives.

Now, nothing is the same as Polaroid, but has anyone tried any of these other options out there?

The fujifilm Instax camera line produces either "mini" or "wide" pics (depending on the camera and film you use).

And the slightly more novelty-ish and less artistic Polaroid portable printer:

PoGo photo printer paper is even sticky - instant stickers! Does this remind anyone of the gameboy camera? I totally had one of those. Now that's a classic.

I know trends are cyclical but...

I don't know if I could do it again.

Jellies

Flannel Shirt

Plus, how am I old enough to have stuff that I wore in elementary/middle school come back in style? Shouldn't I have to wait 10-20 more years at least?

Day(bed) Dreaming

The husband and I have finally decided to replace our old giant futon downstairs to have more room for a desk and maybe even a work table in one of our spare rooms.

I'm thinking a daybed might just do the trick.

Now, how many of you thought of this when I said daybed?

Found this beauty here

Yeah...no.

We're thinking something along these lines is more our speed:

1&2,3,4&5

We'll be hunting for a while. Send me any inspiring daybed pics! Oh, and I promise to get back to that whole chair hunt soon!

Dear Josh Hartnett,

Please get your own look. You are NOT the Depp. 

(source)

(source)

Charity and free ice cream

One of our close friends from high school works for the Make-a-Wish foundation and I thought I would pass this along to the blogosphere (or the small corner of the blogosphere that I can actually touch...hmm, I don't think spheres have corners...never mind). 

On Thursday night (Sept. 25) from 5-8 p.m., Cold Stone Creameries nationwide will serve free ice cream - your choice of two different creations created by Make-A-Wish kids. 

Jack's Creation - Marshmallow ice cream with OREO® Cookies, Chocolate Chips and Fudge
Emily's Creation - Nutter Butter® ice cream with White Chocolate Chips, Kit Kat® and Yellow Cake

They'll be collecting donations for the Make-A-Wish Foundation that night too, so grab your spare change out of your glove box and get to Cold Stone!

Check out the details

Thumbelina

When I was younger, my ballet studio did big fairy tale productions rather than typical dance recitals. When I was 8, I played the leading role of Thumbelina, our fairy tale for that year. That was so difficult, let me tell you. It's a lot to ask of an eight year old to go to 4+ dance classes a week. I went to my own class (the rest of whom were playing dancing flowers or something like that), the little fish class that cut loose the lily pad Thumbelina is sleeping on after she is kidnapped by the toads, the older class with the mouse, the bird, the frog, and the mole (the rest of whom played the evil bugs), individual practices with the different older characters, and the younger class who played the fairies (including the fairy king - how embarrassing to have to dance with a boy when you're 8). The production was very cool though, even though I had to spend most of the first dance sweating inside a giant flower pot.

Anyway, even before I played the part, I loved the story of Thumbelina. I watched the movie and read the story over and over again. Today, I went on an etsy search for Thumbelina art prints and here are my favorites. A couple of the artists have prints for several fairy tales so I would go check them out. Find your favorite fable!

Top to bottom: 1,2,3,4

This may only be laugh out loud hysterical to people who went to business school...

... but enjoy anyway

Find more Digital art videos at 5min.com

Grandpa's chair

I'm thinking this print will serve as a sufficient tribute to my grandfather's chair which I am finally parting with.

The sentiment of the print, explained here, echoes my feelings about so many things in my life that I've collected and my struggle as I attempt to purge my life and house of the clutter.

Dear Blair Waldorf,

I know that you are fictional but you always had a great sense of style.

But a dress made entirely of rick rack?? And rosettes in your hair? I know this is Marc Jacobs but doesn't it look more like something Angela would make?

Yikes!

Blogging Hiatus

Sorry for being absent this week!! My deadline fast approaches and I'm pretty bogged down with heavy family stuff as well. I promise some decent blogging soon!

In the meantime, here are some of the lomo pics from our wedding camera table. We bought many disposable lomos and all different types of plastic ones for our guests to go to town with. There are tons more but I think there's something about these few. Note: I did picnik a few of these so they are enhanced a bit, but I think the essense of "plastic camera-ness" is still there.

I did the frame on the one below not thinking that I wouldn't be able to remove it later...oops!