hey, 2011, hey!

if you don’t just sit for a long time and look out the window at the snow falling all around you, you miss out on a whole lot

if you don’t go outside on a snowy day and stand there, letting the snow fall on your hair and your face and your eyelashes and your fancy clothes and letting the silence wrap its big cold arms around you, you miss out on a whole lot


---------------

2010 was awesome. 2011 will be awesome. and i'm going to blog more about how awesome it is! a new addition to my blogs: i'm gonna add on at the end of every post something that people should do at least once in their lives to make themselves happier and healthier, to add more innocence and joy to the world, to liberate themselves from the confines of routine and stagnation, to become better human beings, to laugh out loud or hug a complete stranger, etc&etc.

there's a children's book author, dallas clayton. (he wrote a book called an awesome book! and then another one called an awesome book of thanks!, you should check him out here), and on his blog/diary thing on his website, he once posted this:

 

this is completely true and i think that small acts of kindness or of imagination or of joy, even something as simple as holding the door open for someone or doing a handstand while waiting for the "walk" sign to come on, will make the world a better place. so i'm going to start including that at the end of each post and should you chose to accept the adventure of becoming a more happy and fun-loving and liberated human being with me (the best new year's resolution of all), it'll be awesome. 

also, i'll be posting more random musings or ideas or writings like the one above about the snow. just because i have a lot in my mind and sometimes my mind likes to see that stuff that it thinks on paper.

also, i might start including a count of how many boxes of honey nut cheerios i've eaten. because if i start counting on january first, i'm sure i'll reach an outrageously high number before long. honey nut cheerios are like God's gift to breakfast. 

anyway, happy new year and check out dallas clayton and go play in the snow if there is any near you and eat honey nut cheerios. and then fix spaghetti and eat it! (<-- that doesn't count as the thing you should do to become a better person, that was just some good advice)

thursday album:

the wapsipinicon, san geronimo

(listen to the song --> "vans on dupont")

http://www.myspace.com/thewapsipinicon

written word wednesday: emerson's all you need

"to speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. most persons do not see the sun. at least they have a very superficial seeing. the sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. the lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. his intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food. in the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows."

-ralph waldo emerson

go climb a mountain. or at least take your facebook-plagued laptops outside. air conditioning and heat are bad for your complexion anyway, i think i heard that somewhere. but really, mountains and grass and trees are great. and vitamin d is really great. and be nice to each other, always. (not to sound preachy, or anything, i just think that's a good principle to live by.)

happy thursday!

(photo cred - me)

minnesota music thursday

so it's not a catchy alliteration or anything, but today definitely is a minnesota music kind of thursday. actually there are two m's right in a row, so that makes it alliterationarily neat. beyond hard-hitting hockey players, that whole state has produced awesome musicians and music, from semisonic, to a bob dylan album, and nowadays to an awesome "indie" music scene, if indie actually means anything as a genre now that's it's been so overused and abused. but really, the minnesota music scene is alive and thriving. examples:

caroline smith & the good night sleeps. quirky voice and folky sound overall, awesome band!








and then, of course there's cloud cult. only the best band ever, in my unbiased and open-minded opinion. these are from their in-studio performance @ KEXP in seattle.








and tons of other bands, but i think i overloaded the video capacity of this blog...so i'll let you discover it for yourself. (sorry for the overly large video sizes, too. apparently i don't know how to work the internet.) land of ten thousand lakes! great thursday.

the old man in the grocery store: written word wednesday edition

i was sitting in creative writing today, zoning out because really, who can focus in an 8 am class listening to other people's sometimes pretty lame stories? not me. and i was looking out the window, at people pretending to be really cool and skateboarding--no, longboarding (big difference)-- and walking to class with scarves and jcrew jackets and coach bags. it's that time of year again in denver, the cold weather time. so, naturally, the uggs-with-tights looks has made its triumphant reappearance, too (GROSS).

anyway, rants about materialism and ridiculous fashion trends aside, i was sitting there and i thought of a story idea about this old man who goes to the library every day to read, and every day, he sits on a park bench outside to eat the same ham and cheese sandwhich. every day. well, not the same sandwhich everyday, but the same general kind of sandwhich. he goes into the grocery store one sunday to get more ham, and they tell him they're out, so he argues with the poor lady for a really long time. then he turns to leave and the ground starts shaking and it turns out there's some bomb raid going on or something crazy like that. maybe just a really bad earthquake. anyway, our professor told us to put a character in a really unexpected situation and that's what i came up with. just in case anyone was curious. it's a pretty fun exercise to do, so you should do it. it's good for your brain and your imagination.

for the revival of written word wednesday, i chose...where the wild things are.

the book, not the movie. books are always better than movies. the simplicity and yet complexity of the book is so powerful that the movie can only be seen as a separate work of art, at least in my opinion. so this book is genius and probably one of the best books out there. my theme for the week has been NEVER GROW UP, so i thought that this book was only the greatest choice ever. really, that's been my theme my whole life.

anyway...this book. it's great. on a basic level, the illustrations and story are awesome and powerful. sendak creates a whole world in just a few pages with just a few sentences. but the story extends beyond just these sentences and just these pages, living on in all of our imaginations and inspiring us to be more max-like. on a more profound level, sendak blends the real world--max's mom and his dinner, for example--with the fantastical and the magical--the monsters and max's whole journey. he plays with time and space to build up this fantastical realm and just creates this universe that i'm sure we would all like to be in. i know i would.

"and he sailed off through night and day
and in and out of weeks
and almost over a year
to where the wild things are."

beyond all the analytical stuff, the words are just powerful. i don't know about you, but they give me goosebumps every time i read this book. it's an escape, but it's not an escapist book. it gives us an opportunity to refresh our perspectives and become more child-like in the best possible way and it applies to our lives at any given time at all. (so it's an opportunity to escape to a higher level of living, rather than an escape to run away from our lives, but i guess it can be that, too.) it uplifts us out of our "worlds" and re-teaches us what's important: love, family, imagination, and wolf suits. and huge monsters and boats. thanks, maurice sendak.

oh man i missed written word wednesdays. but maybe they're back! on probably an un-regular schedule.

happy written word wednesday. and let the wild rumpus start!

monday afternoon.

so taylor swift's new album dropped today. (she sure knows her way around love.)

as if there was any need for more inspiration than that:

happy monday! it's fall.

written word wednesday and the autumnal equinox.

it's wednesday! and, at 11:09 PM eastern time tonight, the earth will be directly facing the sun, with no axial tilt at all. big moment, at least for astronomy and weather and sciencey nerds out there. definitely not me, but the fact was shoved in my face during my geography class today so it's still fresh in my mind. i just wish there was some cosmic announcement or sign or something at 11:09 pm. that would make the whole thing so much cooler. but still, happy autumnal equinox! and more importantly, happy fall! finally. another interesting, or really not interesting depending on how you look at it, fact about tonight: it's the full moon, and it's the first time in 20 years that the fool moon and the equinox have happened at the same time. harvest moon! whatever that means.

so go stand outside tonight around 11 and just watch the sky, i guess. also, maybe harvest some grain. apparently this weird converging of two natural phenomena is good for that.

i have a thing for natgeo photos, so here are some good ones. the first is of a harvest moon, apparently. and the next two are just insanely beautiful photographs.

in washington

aurora borealis! in norway! two fantastic things combined into one. glorious.

so for written word wednesday, i'm going to throw out there for you some quotes from some great authors. it's the best way to get inspired, or to just be uplifted from the drags and routines of everyday life. here goes:

"clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life."
-william faulkner 

"all of us have a place in history. mine is clouds."
-richard brautigan (btw, this was a pretty crazy guy, beat writer and everything, but some of his stories are just crazy enough to blow your mind. check out in watermelon sugar if you're looking for something thought-provoking and quick...not if you're in the mood for a good laugh, though.)

"i don't like work... but i like what is in work - the chance to find yourself. your own reality -- for yourself, not for others -- which no other man can ever know. "
-joseph conrad

"the heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good."
 -gabriel garcia marquez 


happy written word wednseday! and remember, 11:09 pm tonight, harvest some wheat and party.

right now, though, troy is about to sing his angst and take his shirt off. high school musical 3 really was the best of the trilogy. and come on, reading the paper has never looked sexier.

yeah, disney channel is definitely blaring from my tv. deal with it.

because aurora borealises are the best.

please excuse the sporadic blogging. school = time killer and reading is way overrated. but i guess it's necessary if you don't want to work at mcdonald's. or quiznos. or as that guy who stands at the street corner below my window on saturday mornings holding up a "honk for peace" sign. although i guess he doesn't really have a job. so that's another story. i think he smells pretty bad, too.

aaannnyway. it's an awesome day. every day. but especially if you're in minnesota. i was in minneapolis/st paul this weekend with my mom for the creative connection, a big convention for women entrepreneurs. it was cool and all, but the cities were the coolest part of the whole thing. minnesota is such a great place. it just gives off good vibes, or something. and st paul has to be one of the greatest cities in the world. screw paris and london, they're too crowded and all trying too hard to be great. st paul just is, and that's great. no doubt the minnesotan accents help a lot. great food, great colleges, great churches, great people, great hockey, great scandinavian and norweigan and irish and english and french influence and historical heritage, and a whole lot of smokers, which isn't so great but it's still a great, great, great place. just great. for instance:

beautiful houses like this historical Ramsey house/museum

st paul's cathedral

and this awesome dinosaur in the museum of history.

in honor of my new found addiction to minnesota, i'm listening nonstop to my favorite band, cloud cult. they hail from minnesota and exemplify just how awesome that state and everything it produces is/are.

not that the whole nonstop listening thing is new...i'm one of those people that can listen to one song or one album for hours and hours and days and years on end without getting tired of it at all. and cloud cult just seems to be the best band ever, so it's definitely not a challenge to do the whole nonstop listening thing. here's their website if you want to check them out and see just how right i am: www.cloudcult.com. it'll change your life and give you the power to live more positively, energetically, and with generally more happiness and light and love in your life. you'll be hooked in no time, believe me.

yes, this blog was primarily about nothing at all. but sometimes nothing at all is a nice break from "it all" if you know what i mean. oh and to add to the lack of aim and complete stream of consciousness vibe i've got going here in this post, here are some cool pictures of the aurora borealis (plural; borealises?), seen from nortern minnesota. (photo creds go to http://ham.space.umn.edu/spacephys/aurora_gallery). seriously, what could be better than atmospheric phenomenons, in minnesota, and beautiful photography? answer: nothing. aurora borealises and cloud cult and st paul and education and jobs are the best.

and to round of the wanderings of this post: bbc news is the blandest program (programme) ever. sorry tony blair, but you've got some boring, boring, boring people over in englandtown. happy monday/tuesday/week/year/century!

see ya summer

"there is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, 

which through the summer is not heard or seen, 

as if it could not be, as if it had not been!"

percy bysshe shelley

fall is my favorite season for a lot of reasons: the colder and wetter weather, the sound of leaves crunching beneath our footsteps, pumpkins, halloween, and, of course, most importantly, the glorious opportunity to wear plaid and flannel shirts endlessly (without getting the same weird looks you get in summer when you try to wear plaid and flannel shirts all the time).

it's a season of family traditions, from carving pumpkins, to making grocery-bag textbook covers, to jumping in freshly raked leaf piles, to turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes. it's the return of football, of hockey, and of the annoying abundance of grown men wearing sports jerseys in public on weekends.

another great part about the return of autumn: the wind not only blows in colder weather, but also new opportunities to reinvent yourself. when i was little, i was always so excited for school to start in the fall because it was a chance to show the other kids how cool my new clothes and lunchbag were. in college, i still treat is as an opportunity to show up to class changed and more grown up than the year before, the horizon brimming with endless possibilities and my closet overflowing with new clothes to help boost my "new me" image. sure, a lot of these clothes end up in the giveaway pile and the once brimming horizon sometimes pretty quickly dims as people sink back into routines, but the possibility of change and reinvention is always still there.

oh and another reason why fall is great, even more awesome than plaid and flannel. two words: PUMPKIN PIE.

so, see ya, summer, and welcome back fall. and...i'm not even going to think about what season comes after fall, because the thought of shoveling heavy snow just to be able to get out of the garage makes me want to jump off a short building right now. (and land safely of course.) so fall is the focus. don't forget to stop and look at the leaves, buy more plaid and flannel, and just enjoy the fall air and all the opportunities it blows in with it.

on an unrelated but completely important note, taylor swift has a new song. take that as you will. happy monday!

written word wednesday (on thursday)

okay so it's not wednesday, but really, it must be wednesday somewhere. i'm going with the same philosophy of "it's five o'clock somewhere" here. but really, books are so much cooler than drinking, so in your face jimmy buffet. and alan jackson. just put off celebrating thirsty thursday a few more minutes because written word wednesday is so not over yet.

anyway, this week's written word is gabriel garcia marquez's story "the handsomest drowned man in the world."

marquez is one of the pioneers of magical realism, definitely one of the coolest genres of literature ever created. magical realism as a literary genre originated in latin america, and it has close ties, at least aesthetically, with surrealism. exhibit a:

salvador dali, the temptation of st. anthony

this dali painting has clear realistic elements, like the horse and the elephants and the human figure, elements that we can recognize. however, dali blended, and largely overwhelmed, these "normal" elements with the supernatural and bizarre, like the stilt legs, the glowing palace-like structure being carried by the elephants, and the grotesque-ness of the rearing horse. this appears more like a dream, and is thus a representation of the rational mixed with the irrational, the welding together of the conscious and unconscious realms.

magical realism, and surrealism, aim to arrive at a deeper understanding of reality by blending the conscious and the unconscious, and also through the blending of realism with more magical elements, such as: extreme hyperbole, mystery, the outlandish and the fantastical, supernatural elements, an accord between the natural and the supernatural because of the acceptance of the supernatural, fatalism, and paradox, to name just a few. super long sentences, vivid descriptions, and outrageous occurrences combine with other magical elements to create this wonderful genre.

a mexican critic said, "if you can explain it, then it's not magical realism." and that's what makes it so great and, well, magical, to read and take in. marquez's story "the handsomest drowned man in the world" is a prime example of the genre, and also a great story by itself. it's about this tall dead man who washes ashore in a small coastal village. he is described as such: "not only was he the tallest, strongest, most virile, and best built man they had ever seen, but even though they were looking at him there was no room for him in their imagination." they name him esteban, significant because the first christian martyr was esteban, stoned to death and a true representation of faith, love, and mercy. (authors use esteban and steven as character names often to give their characters the same significance right off the bat.) the villagers admire him for his apparent sincerity and modesty and pride, and they return him to the sea after holding a grand funeral for him.

here's the last few sentences, to give you an idea and completely enthrall you so you're just as hooked on marquez and magical realism as i am:

"they let him go without an anchor so that he could come back if he wished and whenever he wished, and they all held their breath for the fraction of centuries the body took to fall into the abyss. they did not need to look at one another to realize that they were no longer all present, that they would never be. but they also knew that everything would be different from then on, that their houses would have wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors so that esteban's memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams and so that no one in the future would dare whisper the big boob finally died, too bad, the handsome fool has finally died, because they were going to paint their house fronts gay colors to make esteban's memory eternal and they were going to break their backs digging for springs among the stones and planting flowers on the cliffs so that in future years at dawn the passengers on great liners would awaken, suffocated by the smell of gardens on the high seas, and the captain would have to come down from the bridge in his dress uniform, with his astrolabe, his pole stare, and his row of war medals and, pointing to the promontory of roses on the horizon, he would say in fourteen languages, look there, where the wind is so peaceful now that it's gone to sleep beneath the beds, over there, where the sun's so bright that the sunflowers don't know which way to turn, yes, over there, that's esteban's village."

the story is about being inspired and the need to discover everything that holds us back. it's also more, a reminder that our routines and mundane lives can be interrupted at any time with the fantastical, the beautiful, the un-ordinary, that it is completely necessary, in order to live life to the fullest and most meaningful extent, to shift your perspective often, or at least to have it shifted for you by an outside force beyond your control.

there's much more meaning in this short story than just that, because naturally magical realism works are so so so dense and wonderfully complex. its significance as well as its beauty are endless. but it's more fun if you figure it all out on your own, so i'll leave you to it. you can access a copy of the story here, but i would definitely suggest buying a book of garcia marquez short stories, like this one. highly worth it and life-changing. just look at how awesome he looks:

definitely one of my top choices in the "who i'd like to meet" category. happy written word (thursday) wednesdaydali painting for you to ponder and eventually give up on trying to understand.

salvador dalí, Lion, Cheval, Dormeuse invisibles, 1930

the tv easel. and speidi

the coolest breakthrough in the constant search for cooler and more expensive ways to show off your plasma/led/lcd 12132421 watt and 123123 resolution HDTV---yeah, that exists---has to be the tv easel. i mean, we watch tv so much, why not treat it as a work of art? it's a pretty understated statement about our culture, as well as just a cool way to place a tv in a room.

the above image is from restoration hardware, a testament to how expensive and apparently in-style this mode of tv display is. if restoration hardware sells it, you know it'll be at least four thousand dollars and out of stock.

but anyway, the tv easel perfectly captures our modern obsession with tv entertainment and all the distraction it gives us. for most people, looking at a tv these days is the equivalent of what looking at art was back in the days (you know, the days, or the days): an escape. renaissance-goers had no tv (sucks to be them), and as long as they weren't dying from the plague or being run out of town by rival ruling family powerhouses, italian aristocrats would admire art for its beauty and, and everything else art has to offer. nowadays, thanks to the industrial revolution, the technological revolution, the medical revolution, and now the hdtv revolution/craze, people can just watch tv to escape without even leaving their comfortable abode. for the average modern-day-goer, the tv really is "art." the artist's canvas on the easel has been replaced by the tv on the easel. and this innovation definitely requires less work on the "artist's" part. just a lot of sitting at a comfortable desk, indoors, entering weird programming codes, or writing a great script that will sell, or filming some engrossing reality trash tv.

not that i'm criticizing. the tv is a great invention. i'm no hater, and i like to watch it. i'm just observing. and judging a little. just a little.

luckily, this new canvas has provided us with great art. exhibit a:

yes. speidi. although now i guess it's just spencer and heidi, individually. which is a bummer. but it made for a great last season of the hills, let me tell you. thanks, mtv. and thanks, whoever invented the tv. and thanks, whoever invented the tv easel. although it was already an invention, so thanks really to whoever copied the idea and applied it to the television.

art is not dead, it just alive in tons of frames per second now. but really, go to a museum. they have couches there sometimes. at least hard benches you could sit on. oh, and speaking of art, invest in some the hills dvd's. and steer clear of restoration hardware. every visit just makes you feel like your life is inadequate and like you live in a shack with dumpster treasures. happy sunday! and remember to work hard on labo(u)r day.




[sunday night album:













matt pond pa, several arrows later]

thursday is the best day of the week.

thursday really is the best day of the whole week, because it's like the weekend is almost here, but the weekend isn't quite here so there's still the anticipation of the weekend. it's hard to explain, but it's true.

[insert witty segway here]

here are some nature photos to inspire/awe/humble/energize you on such a great thursday. and some wise words from marcus aurelius, a cool guy. (all photos are from natgeo.com as much as i wish i could take credit for them)

bering sea

waikawau bay, new zealand

toad river valley, canada

santa monica shore

palouse, washington (washstate, the good washington)

germany

florida

have a great thursday! and go outside.

written word wednesday: first of september

it's written word wednesday! hopefully this trend is catching on. music mondays and follow fridays are getting old.


it's september 1st, the day that the hogwarts express leaves from king's cross. you know, if you keep track of those sorts of dates.

so it's only fitting that today's book is:


harry potter and the deathly hallows.

only one of the best books ever. and i know not everyone's into the whole hp craze, but i cannot say that i am in that unfortunate group of haters.

this book is great on so many levels: the story is good, if you're into it, it's very english (england english), it's extremely well written because jk rowling is a genius, and its themes can be widely applied to "real" life. the power of love, resistance, endurance, friendship, etc., all carry through to the end of the series and culminate in a huge way in this final book. and, this is a great guide to being homeless wanderers, if you ever find yourself in that position. even if you don't follow the series or if you're not a particularly hardcore hp fan, you can appreciate all this book has to offer in the way of transcendental significance and symbolic meaning. it exudes innocence and purity of heart, stressing their supremacy over hatred and prejudice. and we could all use a refresher on the importance of purity of heart these days, right?

plus, did i mention that jk rowling is a genius?

quote highlights:

"dawn seemed to follow midnight with indecent haste."

"he looked out over the ocean and felt closer, this dawn, than ever before, closer to the heart of it all."

"of course it is happening inside your head, harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

"we're all human, aren't we? every human life is worth the same, and worth saving."

"from their high vantage point the village looked like a collection of toy houses in the great slanting shafts of sunlight stretching to earth in the breaks between clouds."

...and way, way more. i would quote the whole book if it wasn't illegal-ish.

anyway, great book and jk rowling is almost as cool as hermione granger. almost. and i probably just lost five or six, or all of my followers on twitter. but haters can hate. now that i've released all my hp nerding energy (nerding is a word. i just made it up, but now it's a word), here's a non-hp related quote to brighten your wednesday.

 

jim and pam, grizzly bears, and etsy love

it is tuesday. and tuesdays are usually not the greatest days for inspiration. so here's something to get you fired up to get dressed and do something worthwhile today. although hopefully you're not still undressed or in your pajamas at 2:06 pm mountain time. but i won't judge you (to your face).

i watch this video a lot. like at least weekly and more most weeks. i've mentioned my addiction to online shopping, but it's nothing to my addiction to the office.























that video always makes me smile, and i hope i got you addicted to it as well. nothing like sharing my fetishes and obsessions with others and passing on the crazy. (whoa, picturing an army of me's in this world, running amuck and spreading the crazy, just made me really thankful for the ineffectiveness of cloning devices). here are some more random tidbits of mostly worthless information to inspire you on this maybe "blah" tuesday. but once you read this, it'll turn from blah to bright and mundane to awesome. you're welcome.

1. cinnomon increases your metabolism. 

2. the earth is probably 92 million miles from the sun.

3. an avacado has more potassium than a banana. 

4. animals could be put on trial for crimes in medieval england. 

5. and finally, grizzly bears are the best kind of bear.

now you'll hands down win your next round of trivial pursuit!

also on this tuesday, instead of all the worthless information i just filled your head with and forced you to read before getting to the real blog post, here is some cool stuff i've found on etsy lately and the shops they came from.

(clockwise from top left: 1. the big harumph 2. elitas 3. bananastrudel 4. blue carrot shop 5. spool and sparrow 6. ikabags)

so go waste a good chunk of your day on etsy searching for some cool stuff. like i just did.and check back tomorrow for written word wednesday. it's gonna be a good one. hint: king's cross. september 1st. best ever.

i hope your tuesday is now more inspired. if you need that last little push, here are some music suggestions that are top on my list right now:

1. sigur ros (song: inní mér syngur vitleysingur) -->it's a mouthful, and it's not in english, but that makes it all the better to listen to and to get lost in
2. shout out louds (song: show me something new) --> awesome music video too
3. sondre lerche (song: to be surpirsed)
4. sahara hotnights (song: who do you dance for?)
5. kt tunstall (song: golden age, from acoustic extravaganza)


and...my favorite and soon to be your favorite:
6. harry & the potters (song: the forbidden forest hockey league)

happy tuesday!

OGA! D-town's Best

so i promised a post all about old glory antiques urban home + design. here it is! and if you read anything today, it should be this. make this post your home page if you'd like. i think that's a super idea.

anyway, there's this store in denver called Old Glory Antiques Urban Home + Design (yeah i used capital letters, so it's a big deal).

OGA facebook
OGA twitter
www.oldgloryantiquesinc.com

my mom owns it and operates it, which might make me bias, but really, being unbiased is overrated. she puts more work into this store than i've ever seen anyone put into anything, and it definitely shows.

it's one of the coolest retail stores in colorado, and probably the country, and probably the world. the merchandise is a mix of old and new, combining beautiful and worn antiques with art, jewelry, and other new merchandise. it's definitely a local favorite, and it's gotten more and more attention over the years (see their website for press and stuff if you don't believe me, and even if you do believe me). it's a beautiful space and environment, and at any given time, there are customers in the store saying how the space and arrangements have inspired them to make their own houses look cooler and less...well, less bad. she's an expert stylist and a wizard of creating beautiful arrangements with all kinds of antiques, ephemera, art, jewelry, and anything else she has in the store. her creativity would put picasso to shame and her brilliance for business would put steve jobs to shame.

just some of the great stuff she has regularly stocked and the stuff she hunts all over the country for to bring to eager customers:

 

(all pictures taken by candy rice)

my mom's store has been a constant source of pride and fun and happiness for my whole family ever since i was about 6 and she opened her doors to the world (at a different location). really, retail is in my blood. so watch out for that umbrella store. it's coming so just hold off buying any umbrellas for a while, please. it'll be worth the wait.

anyway, ever since me and my brothers were little, my parents would take us along on all their trips to hunt for great antiques, and whether it was smelly kansas (no offense to kansas), hot oklahoma (some offense to oklahoma), or anywhere else in the country, it was always fun. my mom taught me to live for the hunt. which would definitely explain my addiction to etsy and internet shopping these days.

small business owners have it harder than anyone, and my mom's success has shown me the real value of hard work and sticking it through hard times.

"it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." [ee cummings]

this is a quote my mom lives by, and she has taught all of her children to live by it too. despite the hard work and challenges along the way, she has been able to grow up and create her dream store and live her life with love and  light every day. and that is something i admire more than anything else. i always used to wear those life is good shirts in middle school (simpler times) and i never really understood why the tags always said LET WHAT YOU LOVE BE WHAT YOU DO. but now i do since i'm finally old enough to see how much my mom loves what she does every day. she is completely dedicated to making people happy with a perfect mix of antiques, framed quotes, good smells, inspirational arrangements, and just genuine, authentic, pure kindness. and that makes the store so much more awesome.

so, long story short, if you're anywhere near denver or colorado, or really, if you're in america or even a human being living on earth (no astronauts or aliens please), you should come check out Old Glory Antiques Urban Home + Design and see what it's all about. you can get a lot more than great furniture and accessories here. it's certainly my favorite store. it's also the single most significant thing that's helped me figure out what i want to do with my life. watching hgtv is probably a close second. and then the color blue after that. but really, who knows what goes on in my head?

even if you don't live in denver, support local businesses and all. it's where you can find the real good stuff, not chain stores. and that's hard for me to admit because of my crippling addiction to ikea and west elm and pottery barn. but for real, local is where it's at. and even more specifically, old glory is where it's at.

sorry for ending a sentence in a preposition. twice in a row. my mom taught me better that that.

couch shopping/surfing. polaroid party!

ok so shopping for a couch has interfered with regularly updating this blog. i'm trying to furnish an apartment in a very short amount of time, and ikea has pretty much become my best friend. not that it wasn't already. i'm also getting pretty friendly with etsy. almost as friendly as spencer and heidi were, if you get my meaning. well, before they turned into psychopaths and appeared on those reality survival shows. and then went to mexico despite the swine flu craze. and got fake bodies and sold their souls to the devil. and got divorced. long story. and really, really old news. moving on.

here's a cool (and weird on so many levels) picture to get you excited for the weekend. once september rolls in and brings busy school and work weeks along with it, i always feel like the weekends are just that much better.

(cred to NatGeo)

no, it doesn't have anything to do with anything. but apparently these people were waiting for the slaughtered sheep to cook so they broke out into song. how cool are mongolians! so go outside and do something weird this weekend. it'll make you feel alive and great. or just eat some slaughtered sheep and enjoy every last bite. happy weekend!

inspiration for the day/night/week:

vail, co

"to live happily is an inward power of the soul" 

[marcus aurelius]

written word wednesday

so some people do music mondays, or other cool things with alliteration, on their blogs. so i'm starting this one: written word wednesday. it's pretty much as cool as it sounds. instead of the music i'm into at the moment, i'll feature the books and other reads i'm into at the moment. i'm a pretty "at the moment" kind of person, so my favorites can be way different week by week. my constantly shifting interests are one of my defining characteristics.

this week: i chose a classic that i recently just re-discovered when typing up some quotes. the little prince, by antoine de saint-exupery.

sifting through all the dog-eared pages in my copy made me remember how awesome this book is, and how great its simple lessons are. i mean, how much more authenticity could you ask for from a little wandering man from another planet who just wants someone to draw him a sheep? this book is 100% authentic, 100% pure, and 100% one of the best books ever.

some of my favorite quotes:


"'One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.'" (the Fox to the Little Prince)

"'Only the children know what they're looking for,' said the little prince. 'They spend their time on a rag doll and it becomes very important, and if it's taken away from them, they cry...'
'They're lucky,' the switchman said."


...and way more. pretty much the whole book.

plus, the illustrations are completely pure and innocent, too:

overall, just one of the best books ever. it's a good lesson about how to live your life, in the form of a children's book. seriously inspiring and moving if you open yourself up to its messages. i could go on for days and months and years about this book, so i'll leave it up to you to see just how great it is for yourselves.

on a related note, you also should also check out the song, "baobabs" by regina spektor. great song and i'm almost positive it's inspired by this book. but who knows. it's another manifestation of the need for purity of heart in this increasingly corrupt world. just some fodder for thought (i'm pushing for that expression to replace "food for thought." it's much more sophisticated and organic-sounding.)

happy written word wednesday!