Saturday, March 5, 2011

Blast-o from el past-o

I just got off work.  It's a Friday night.  I'm not as spent as I usually am and am willing to put a little more time in behind the computer to get one last post out before the end of the week.

My poor poor Dave is in the office, switching back and forth from multiple calls, trying to fix some work messes.  He has been working non stop since his first call at 630 am and it's now 1039 pm.  Craziness.  So here I am, in my comfy chair with a glass of wine (what a treat!) and I'd like to share a little project that I've been working long and hard on for a few days now....What can it be?!  diy>!?  poetry?  spring planting?  nope, something much more fulfilling:  uploading the photos from my phone onto the tmobile site, sending them to flickr, and then copy and pasting them onto my hard drive!!! (in the meantime I think I racked up phone bill up pretty high sending all the pics to my tmobile account, but pics are priceless right?)  I've been on a pics kick lately.  Photo books, photo prints, and now phone pics.

Let me give you some background:  this lil Samsung has been with me for three years.  She and I are perfect for each other.  She rings and I answer.  That's all we really need from each other and it's just an added bonus that she also takes tiny, no flash, low res, 1.3 mega pixel pics.  When I went to India three years ago, she was brand new, and when I forgot to bring the battery for my real camera, Samsung camera phone came in very handy (people in India had not yet experienced the camera + phone phenomenon, they were still excited by camera + mp3 music player, so when I'd hold it up in the air and aim at something, I got a lot of crazy looks).  It was two weeks til we found a camera shop that had a Canon camera battery and so I snapped with my phone in the meantime.

Time has flown since then and she is still going strong, but I worry for the day that I accidentally drop her in the toilet (a known weakness of mine) or she gets run over by a car (don't leave your phone on the roof of your car while driving!) and then I would lose all kinds of precious picture memories.  So thanks to work being slow / me being lazy, I got them all uploaded and saved down.

Please, take this trip with me down phone India pictures memory lane:


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This is the first pic I ever took.  David sleeping at Il Vicino

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Cheers to being fresh off the plane and in utter shock of your surroundings sister!

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view atop a winding road in the Himalayas during a grueling 12 hour bus ride

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(basic picture caption summary:  Himalayas, Ganges River, Taj Mahal)


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

February Favorite Things

The list is a bit short this month, haven't been on the path of great discovery lately, but there are some things worth mentioning.....

1)  JAMAICA - SANDALS RESORTS!!!  If you're like me and every year you plan to use your tax returns to pay off your credit cards but instead go on an over the top vacation, then high five!  Dave and I figured that we would scratch our plans for Spain this year for a group trip with friends.  We figure everyone is quickly growing up, spreading out, and acquiring more responsibilities, so we all need to vacay pronto before any kids come out.  Via Facebook we all settled on going to Jamaica during the week of Memorial Day, and now that all the planning is over, I am counting down the days til I'm in paradise....ahhhhhh.  Who knows if Sandals is hurting from the economy, string of bad hurricanes, or is putting up good deals for those brave enough to travel during the off season, I don't care.  It is fairly affordable for the two of us to go for five days and with our flight included in the all inclusive price, I'm happy to take advantage of the bottomless drinks and blue water beaches...just this one time.  We will take a more intellectual / stimulating vacay another time. 



2)  Shutterfly.com makes it soooo easy to order prints, cards, and photobooks...I'm. in love.  It took me a few weeks to put two books together, but only because I had a gabillion pictures from Oregon.  Shutterfly will take an album and chronologically organize it into a book for you, and all you have to do is choose the layout / style, and insert your captions!  I got two 8 x 8 books printed in hard back and they were shipped for free in about a week.  (you can also view e-copies of Vol. I and Vol. II).  Prices for books are discounted now and start at $11 (includes 20 pages and additional pages are 0.50 each), can't beat that, and the pictures looks great, not grainy and blurry like I thought they might.  After I ordered my books they also gave me thirty free prints, and those are in the mail now (or you can pic them up at a local printer of your choice), and I plan on making another book for my sister, and book of my India pictures so they don't spend an eternity on my laptop. 




3.  LOVE LOVE LOVE Mila Kunis' dress at the Oscars this weekend.  I wasn't in love with all the red hot and sleek silver dresses that dominated all the ladies and I really was not a fan of Anne Hathaway's wardobe / over the top bubbly / smiley persona, but dammmmnnnnn Mila Kunis made me lust all over that flowey purple dress:


 Also worthy of mention, Cate Blanchett, LOVE it:



4. New blog:  Under the Table and Dreaming is about decorating and design like many other sites, but I really love the diy projects and the organic style in Stephanie Lynn's crafts and ideas.  Not to mention she does some amazing things with paper that make elegant pieces for the ol' house. 


 4.  In the same line of thinking...check out this awesome antiques shop on Morningside and Central, C. Dimery's Morningside Antiques.  If you are at a loss of what to do on a Sunday afternoon, go in and look at the amazing collection this guy has.  There are multiple rooms organized by time period and you will find everything from mid-18th century furniture, silverware, jewelry, clothing, books, to retro furniture and art work, all resotred and displayed beautifully.  Granted, I don't know much about the costs of these things, but compared to prices of furniture at Target or JC Penny's Homestore, I think their pieces are SUPER fair and I don't know about you, I'd much rather have an antique with history and character, than some fiber board veneer crap.  Even if you don't plan to buy, it's like walking through a museum and all pieces are tagged with a full description and history for your reading pleasure.  IT MAKES ME WANT A HOUSE SOOOOO BAD so I can fill it with all of these beautiful things!!!


5.  Bathing suits at JCrew.  I know, it's way too early, but it's the same concept as a hanging that polka dot bikini in your room as motivation to shed those extra pounds...except times 100, and on the internet.  Love them, but damn!  why they gotta be so expensive!  shiiiittttttttt

Islet paisley wide-band halter topCalais floral twist bandeau topPalm-stripe underwire tank

6.  What else...what else?  Nothing really.  Feb. was an ok month.  It was short and I didn't really do anything too exciting. But when thinking back, my family has been my main focal point this past 28 days and I've gotten some perspective on how much I really really love them.  My parents are really special to me, my sister and I have gotten closer this month, whereas before I felt like our relationship was a chore, now I am enjoying the comfort of having a big sister in my life, my nephew is nuts and freakin adorable at the same time, my little brother is the coolest 19 year old I know, and my older brother turned 40! yesterday and I plan to use the occasion to open the lines of communication between us that are fairly non existant at the moment.    So sappy, I know.


July 2009
Things to look forward to in March:  Dave's 28th Birthday!!!! and Our 6 Year Anniversary!!!