Wild Orchid by Revlon

I picked up a new lipstick on a whim and I find myself grabbing it all of the time. It's sort of a bold, bright, iridescent/neon purple... very '80s. But somehow, I love it for the summer and it feels much more fun (right now) than bright red.

What dreams may come

For a while now, I've had it in my head to re-watch this movie. I couldn't remember much about it except that it was very sad and very good. I sat down with it today, and still feel the same way. So good, and so beautiful too, but so, so, sad, - I cried continually until it was over. I usually don't like movies that are so emotional, but I think it may actually be one of my favorite movies.

New (Old) Music Monday: Skid Row

I admit it. I still love this band.

The ballads in particular, like I Remember You and Wasted Time. I recently made a playlist and have been rocking out to some Skid Row in my car all week.

Know what else I love? Sebastian Bach playing Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Seriously, I'm so glad I didn't miss that.

I heart film.

Here's some more photographs taken 3-4 years ago, and finally developed:

I think once I get all the old rolls developed, I'm going to work on using up the stockpile of unused rolls I have in the fridge.

In the meantime, I just broke down and bought a new lens for my dslr that I am really excited about it!

The Fabric of the Cosmos

Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.

I love Einstein. I'm trying to read this book:

It has long been in my to-read stack, and it is crazy interesting, but so hard to wrap my brain around that it's averaging me 30 minutes to read 9 pages! May be even harder to digest than War and Peace!

Down with the sickness

Earlier this month, we bought a second piece from our neighbor called The Sickness:

It's huge, and I like the bright colors and bold lines; it's exactly what we needed to fill up this space of the kitchen.

This was our first piece from him, The Juggler:

The colors are much more muted and it's huge, but a diptych, and painted on wood instead of canvas. We've still got a few more blank walls, but a few more ideas of what to fill them with too, including what I think may be my greatest idea ever!

the river

Just got these photographs back that were taken 3 years ago! Can't believe how different we were then.

You remember good times, but you forget exactly what it looked like.

New (Old) Music Monday: Hum

Well, new to me. Husband found this band on the radio (that I vaguely remember from the 90s) and we downloaded the album because it all sounded pretty good.

And it is. Good cd to listen to on repeat all day.

this weekend...

Went to a party. Wore my new dress:

Went shopping. Got some strawberry licorice flavored stuff from Sephora. Smells like strawberry a lot, but not strawberry licorice at all:

Practiced guitar so much my fingertips got little black marks on them that wouldn't go away:

Watched The Other Guys. Good, but not great at all:

Got a new outside cat. He hops right on your lap and purrs, even when you don't want him too. You don't even have to pet him, because he pets you. He also sleeps on your car:

One more reason to drink...

Wanted to try some Texas wine, and this was the most interesting bottle that I found:

Proceeds support the Alamo!

Although, obviously, I don't have too high of hopes for it. Maybe an end-of-the-night bottle, when pretty much anything tastes fine?

The Alamo is a funny thing. Every once in a while, we unintentionally drive by it - it's just right there in the middle of things - and it's so weird, it's like, hey, look, it's THE. ALAMO. I know this is blasphemous, but it's terribly unimpressive in real life. But it's still weird that it's right there.

Fashion Mags

I used to have a problem with fashion magazines: buying too many and keeping them all. Now, I only buy them in airports and periodically purge them when they get too numerous for my small magazine rack. Before I throw them out, I look through each one and rip out any pages that I may want to keep.

Now, it's time to sort through the pile of pages, with the idea of making sort of a style inspiration book (like this).

All my saved images fit pretty nicely into a few categories, that I call: Classic glamour (long leather gloves, white button-ups, and pencil skirts), Grungy+Bohemian (hats, vests, and babydoll dresses), Sexy+Bombshell (red lipstick, corsets and leopard), and Edgy+Rockstar (leather jackets, sequins, and studded jewelry). I'm thinking when I shop, I need to look for elements to move my wardrobe out of the "plain" categories and into any of the above. It's so hard, though, to wear anything but this:

when it's like this outside:

summer style, again

I knocked a few things off my little summer beauty list with a trip to Ulta a few weeks ago:

The Hawaiian Tropic dark tanning oil (which I do not plan to use for tanning! I stick to high spfs on the body and higher spfs on the face if I'm going in the sun). I love the smell though, so thought it would make a good summer-y body lotion. But I forgot my #1 rule for body lotion/oils - make sure it tastes good. The this stuff tastes real chemical-ly, and I absolutely refuse to cover myself with bad-tasting stuff right before I get into bed (because, well.). I think I'll just stick with my Suave Cocoa Butter with Shea Body Lotion, which has a very light smell, and no taste at all. Seriously, it's so cheap, but it's the best stuff I've found by far.

But for the mornings, Hawaiian Tropic Sheer Touch Spf 30 smells just like the oil, isn't greasy, and adds a little protection for running around town.

Instead of Bumble and Bumble, I picked up Fekkai Summer Hair Marine Beach Waves, which I immediately used and really like. It makes a messy, full look:

I literally can't remember the last time I blow-dried or flat-ironed my hair and I only even comb through it at night after a wash and then just fall asleep while it dries.

I still need to pick up some Lolita heart-shaped glasses (Did you know they don't make even one appearance in the movie, and are just famous from the movie poster?):

I wish I would've bought these in Amsterdam, they had racks of every color imaginable for 4 euros. I thought I was too old for them then, but I don't care anymore!

cactus tire garden

Dragged some discarded tires over one night, and they turned into one of my favorite things whenever I walk outside. Our own little cactus tire garden:

No-stripe pledge

Ok, I'm making a promise to myself that I will never again buy anything striped without a second opinion. Something about black and white stripes suck me in and make everything appear cuter than it really is. I was on the right track sending this cell phone snap in the dressing room, but instead of waiting for confirmation, I just bought it anyway. The tiny stripes sucked me in.

Let's just say it was a lesson learned, I hope.

yesterday...

Yesterday was a gorgeous day for our long drive.

And then came the biggest rainbow I've ever seen in my life! I could see both side reaching down for the earth, and it was so... solid.

And then came something I've never seen before: two giant rainbows stretching along the same sky! The top one was very faint and the bottom one was very dark and had it's own whole piece of light sky under it.

And then they were both gone. These pictures so do not do justice.

We listened to The Constellations' Southern Gothic album on the drive and can I say I love this band. Heard the first song and liked it enough to buy the rest ($7.99 on itunes, not bad) and it was well worth it. They sound a little bit like so many different people but still so original. (Felicia's still the favorite though.)