funny lady

Ellen cracks me up. Every time.
The Dakota Fanning by line put me over the top.

Halloween!

I'm not really a Halloween person anymore... but sometimes I miss the Halloween days of my youth when the holiday was all about make believe and having fun. For college students it is mostly an opportunity to expose a little more cleavage... but sometimes when I find inspiration like this it makes me get a little giddy about the days when I've got a kiddo of my own to take up the creative side of Halloween spirit once again!

These DIY costumes from Martha Stewart rock.

I've also found lots of inspiration for Halloween parties which I just may make use of before there is a kiddo on the horizon. My philosopher's birthday is in October and I've been thinking about throwing a pre-Halloween birthday bash for quite some time now.

Maybe we could have some SPOOKTACULAR invitations like one of these (with a birthday twist, of course)...

Or something like this...


But my favorite invite idea of all is something creepy and surprising like this:


At the party we could serve some ghoulish treats like these...

chocolate (or hot coco or coffee) with marshmallow bones

yummy witchcream sandwitches

spider cake

And/or my favorite spooky sweet - -

cuppie brains!
Actually, my favorite thing about this is the name tag set up.
I especially love the one at the front because a long time ago
I started referring to my philosopher as Sir Thinks-A-Lot.
Coincidence?? I think not.

We could decorate our house sort of like this...

A Halloween birthday bash for my love is meant to be.
I just know it.

cute.

{found this here, DIY instructions over here}

This is Awesome.

keep calm and carry on

{photo found here}

I'm in a sad sort of waiting game...
waiting for the tick tocks to catch up with me
waiting until there is no more time
nothing left for me to do
than go to class one
and go to class two
waiting until my fingers have given form to my ideas
and these papers are complete.

waiting for the bus and the train
tomorrow's inevitable rain...

Holidays are Sweet.

It is true, I love cupcakes and the holiday season. Both.

What makes the cupcakes and the holidays even better??
Well, this year, Neiman Marcus.
Despite their ridiculous prices, I love browsing through Neiman Marcus.
AND, because of their ridiculousness, I loooovvvvveeee browsing
the annual Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog.

After all, where else do I come across crazy things like this:

Meet the customized 25 grand "Cupcake Car".

No Joke.

sweet house, sweeter treehouse.

{photo found here}

Wouldn't it be fun to live here...
Or to let your kids play here...
Talk about inspiring imagination!

Mac...

Used to be teeny-tiny.
I weighed him on Friday.
He's now 16.8 pounds.
C'est la vie.

a special delivery dissected!

I finally got around to unpacking some of my stamp boxes! I didn't have a lot of time to get really re-acquainted with the collection but I did flip through some of the books and snap a couple of quick photos.

Just to get an idea of the magnitude of the collection...

the giant boxes and some of the guts...

Here are a few of my favorites:

hotness.

I have beautiful friends, it's true.

mixed messages and why I am so great

How cute is {this}?

Leading question, I know.

I figure there are three basic types of people:
1. those that read {this}, giggle, and badly want kids of their own
2. those that read {this}, release a sigh of relief, and feel grateful to either
a. not have kids or b. have kids of a different age
3. those that read {this} with absolute indifference.

Can you guess which one I am?

BTW: The "I am the Best!" sign is my favorite!
It reminds me of Nietzsche (pinning me, undeniably, a college student).

Narcissistic Pickle Tycoons, Bioslavery, and John Moore's Spleen

This is what I'm thinking about, once again. Actually, the narcissistic pickle tycoon is new to me, grâce à Priscilla Wald, but I've been mulling over the general question of bodily ownership for a while now. Do you own your body? Legally no. But, legally no one else is supposed to either. Our bodies are in a perpetual legal limbo - - the swampy fringes of our code of law.

I've got to gather my thoughts quickly on the rights of individuals' to their own bodies - - our husky shells down to the littlest bits of our genetic code. If I were a justice on the California Supreme Court, what would my decision in the Moore case be? By Friday I'll have an answer.

don't get me started... not yet

Someday soon I will have a lot more to say about {this}.The mass agriculture, factory farming setup our country so cherishes is an absolute blight on our health, our natural environments, and the safety and quality of life of the workers and animals involved. It doesn't really matter where one's values and priorities lie, an irrefutable case against factory farming can be made to appeal to just about anyone actually willing to do the research or, even easier, listen to it. One of the things that I think is so sad about it all is that {this woman}, despite having an unusually aggressive response, is not an exception. So many people are harmed by the food industry every day. Ugg. Like I said, soon I will have much, much more to say both formally and informally (and hopefully a *little* more eloquently). But for now....

kidease

So... the idea behind these little lunches is really great.
And the images are really funny and cute.
But... well... is it just me or does "kidease" sound like an insult?

Kidease...Disease...

Kidease...Cooties...

The possibilities for other kids to mercilessly make fun of the lunch goer
innocently trying to "ease" their existence with a fun bite to eat...

I don't even want to think about it.

Two things.

1. These invitations are really, really cute. I {heart} them very much.


2. {This Blog} is amazing. I've been following Cannelle Vanille for several months and, again, all there is to say is that Aran is incredible.

Supercalafragalistexpialidociously so.