Floral Creations

On my recent birthday, I discovered one of the perks of being the daughter of a floral designer: birthday flower arrangements made by my own mother. 


My mom recently went back to work; she took a job as a floral designer. I think she likes it for the most part; she always made her own wreaths and arrangements whenever possible. For my birthday, my first as the child of a working mother, she put together this "pupcake" and added extra daises. Because, in addition to being the friendliest flower, they are also my favourite. 

Though I should also note that my sister picked out this particular arrangement. :-)

Cletus

My sister requested a blog post dedicated to one of her favourite ducks: Cletus. So here it is:


My sister has loved her pet ducks for her entire life. One of my favourite photos of her as a baby shows her wearing a bathing suit and sneakers, squatted down next to a duck. She has her arms folded like wings, and she and the duck are staring intently at each other. Each one trying to figure out the other.


But having ducks is not always easy. I mean, they are low-maintenance when it comes to feeding and clean-up, but they are not good when it comes to self-defense. Hence the phrase "like sitting ducks." Over the years we have lost many to predators such as dogs, raccoons (NO, they are not cute!), opossum, and weird fungal infections. One time my sister came outside to find just a duck foot. No blood or feathers. Just a lone foot. After checking the rest of the ducks, she realized that one of them was perfectly fine yet missing a foot. The foot had simply fallen off. He lived many years more, but always had trouble swimming in a straight line....


Cletus is depicted below. This duck has the wildest hairstyle; like a giant cotton ball has been glued to its head. It is the best animal hair besides Hank's.

(Sister & Cletus)

(In action) 

(In hiding)

Pinterest Update

A good friend saw my post about Pinterest, and she sent me an invite. So I cheated. I didn't wait for the real invite. I'm sorry, but I actually don't feel badly about not waiting. :-)


And as I suspected, I really love this site. :-) 


A huge THANK YOU to Steph S. :-)

To Hold or Not To Hold

(No, this is not about bathroom breaks on a roadtrip.)


My thoughts about holding the door for other people were stirred by this article on HelloGigles.com. Unlike a lot of people that I run into on a daily basis, I not raised by wolves; instead, I was raised by two parents who were sticklers for "the proper way to do things." As a teenager, my father took me outside on a sunny summer day and proceeded to teach me "The Proper Way to Wash the Car." 


"The Proper Way To..." list should also include a section on holding the door for the person behind you.


Not so long ago, in college, my friends and I had to trick guys into holding the door open for us. Some of the academic building had really heavy doors, and I was usually carrying around 2 Norton anthologies (not by choice). When we saw someone (especially a guy) opening the door to go through it, the only way to get him to hold it for you was to dash through really  quickly, throwing a "thanks!" over one's shoulder. Some men started to catch on, but not enough to make us stop doing it.


Having to do this sneak attack to get someone to help you out is pretty depressing. Many times I wind up awkwardly holding the door for someone who is kind of far behind me, or muttering "hey, thanks!" under my breath after those people who don't say it to me when I've paused in my daily commute to not slam a door in their face. Yet I continue to consider the person behind me.


I know it's technically February, but could more people make a resolution to not be an ass and hold the door open for others? Maybe this resolution could take the place of the one you've already broken? It's really much easier than going to the gym.

Pinterest: Fun, Snobby, or Both?

When I was a kid, I had a corkboard on my wall. I LOVED this thing. I spent hours organizing it with photos I cut out of magazines of houses, clothes/shoes, and teen movie-star crushes. Now the interwebs have taken this to a whole new level.


Perhaps you have heard of Pinterest? I've been looking at Joanna's from Cup of Jo, and I must say that this looks like the best idea in a while. How many times do you find something online that you wish you could post somewhere? For me this is something that happens constantly. I usually just save the link in an email and either forget about it or find that, six months later, the link is broken. 


So I signed up for Pinterest. But the super annoying thing is that you have to request an invite. Really? I'm not trying to meet the Queen of England. I just want a virtual cork board thing. I've been seeing this invite business more and more, and I'm wondering if it's the new cool/elitist thing for websites to do. 


Now I'm just sitting here, trying to procrastinate from a myriad of other things, and waiting for that invite to show up in my email. Meanwhile several Facebook friends are working on their boards and finding the cool stuff (by the way, thanks again Facebook for finding another way to make me feel bad about my life). I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm waiting excitedly. But I still feel like I'm back in high school, and I'm the only kid who doesn't have the internet because my parents think it's just a fad (this seriously happened to me).


For those of you who have Pinterest, please enjoy it for me. It's basically cutting things out of magazines but with unlimited space and no papercuts. Totally fab. But for now, my email list of links will have to suffice....

Queen of Hats

She may not be Queen of England yet, but Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is basically the Queen of Hats.


The Headware Association honored her with the title of "Hat Person of the Year" (Full article and photos of the Duchess avec her headpieces here).


I will never cease to be amazed at the professional associations out there in the world. Who would've known that they was a Headware Association? I bet their annual conference is AMAZING! 


This is yet another article that makes me realize how sad I am that hats aren't the fashion necessity they were in the early-mid 20th century. Maybe the Duchess can change this....


PS: I am also quite indignant when people in the media continually refer to her as Kate Middleton.  Poor reporting indeed if you can't refer to someone by her married name. 

Coat Rack

People,
I know this is something that most of us take for granted, but coatracks are the best thing ever. I don't have room in my apartment for the freestanding coatrack/umbrella stand of my dreams. So earlier this year I embarked on the process of buying a coatrack that could be attached to the wall. I even looked in a art-y shop in Maine, but, alas, only coatracks with small hooks could be found.


Why is this such a big deal? Two reasons:
1. I am picky, and nothing I found could either hold up all my coats or look remotely nice when it wasn't holding coats.
2. I was quickly tiring of using the chairs from my dining room set as a place to hold coats. It got annoying when I was late for work and needed to find the desired outerwear, and it got embarrassing when I had people over who needed to use said chairs.


My Madre came to the rescue with this as a Christmas gift:

And it makes all the difference in the world! I can see my chairs now! There is a place for my coats/scarves/some of my bags. And Hank will no longer have to hear me curse the world when I'm late for the train and my coats have tangled themselves together.

Not for Old Ladies....

Yes, I do the kind of crafts that are equally enjoyed by the elderly. Yes, I also have trouble with mean people. A good friend (who clearly knows me too well) suggested this for my next project. A combination of the two attributes I mentioned above:

(found at: http://www.chacha.com/topic/home-everything/gallery/1854/offensive-needlepoint)

Though this one made me think of something my sister and I might say to each other (in jest, of course):

(found at http://www.chacha.com/topic/home-everything/gallery/1854/offensive-needlepoint/13742)

Inns and Jam

If you're looking for a nice, secluded inn in New Hampshire, may I recommend:

I stayed here with family after a wedding, and it was a lovely old farmhouse. The attached barn has been converted into another wing of the inn, and the contrast between the thick wood paneling in the television room (no, there are no televisions in the guest rooms...this was surprisingly nice) and the light, floral wallpaper in the guests' hallway gives one a strange sense of calm.

Old-fashioned latches are also a lovely touch. But they don't carry an affected air; instead, you get the sense that they are there to do only what they were made to do- latch!

Many of the items have been re-used in interesting ways. This schoolhouse desk/chair was in the bathroom. My sister used it as a place to put her makeup, but the picture of a desk in the loo was quaint and more than a little funny. 

And let's not forget the rooms that remind me of my grandparents (if my grandparents had owned a little farmhouse)- and also a little of Anne of Green Gables:

(probably my favourite kind of wall paper)

(Tavern named after one of the innkeeper's dogs)

(in the television room)

In addition to being friendly and cooking insanely good food for all meals, the Innkeeper and his wife make their own jam! I bought some strawberry rhubarb (which is delicious), and my mom got raspberry and green tomato. The jam is also low on sugar in case that is a concern (it always is for us).

Few Words

On a recent roadtrip, we had to stop for the loo. There was nothing decent around, so we had to go to a sketchy gas station. But it seems as though, dodgy as it was, this gas station has seen its share of weary travelers. 


They even made up a fancy sign to direct one to the loo: 

Congratulations!

Best wishes to my dear twin on her wedding!!! It was a lovely day; thank you for letting me share it with you both.

Christmas is Still in Town

We're still hanging onto the Christmas spirit here in PA.

Ginger Babies

Christmas Eve afternoon was spent with my goddaughter and her brothers. They were visiting from St. Louis for a few days, and we all met up for some cheesesteaks.

(myself and Adrienne)

(books for Ethan)

The newest baby, Lucah, was fascinated with my brothers and their facial hair. Just when you thought he had enough of one, he was distracted by another.

(One of these days, Alice! Bang! Zoom!)

And of course it would not be a proper visit without my sister:

Fresh Pots

Thanks to my brothers, this video has taken over my life. Even my father has been walking around yelling, "Fresh Pots!!"

He doesn't know what he's talking about. My cousin heard him and asked me why my dad was talking about pot.

This video is not about pot.

I Want to be Friends with Mindy Kaling

Today I finished  "Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" by Mindy Kaling* And now I want to be her friend. I might've felt this way after finishing Tina Fey's book, but, let's be honest, Tina Fey intimidates me. 


Yes, a woman who writes fart jokes for a living and flawlessly impersonates female vice presidential candidates intimidates me. I think this is mainly because she's won the Mark Twain Prize, and I forget the punchlines to most jokes.


Anyway, if you enjoy laughing and humorous observations about life, then you will enjoy this book. If you don't enjoy laughing....well, I really don't know what to say to you. 


But be warned: this book made me laugh out loud. On the train. Except that most people on my train now think I have tuberculosis because I tried to disguise my hysterical and publicly inappropriate laughter by coughing.




*Disclaimer: Yes, I know this book came out circa November. But I personally just got it from my library because the wait was freakishly long. I cannot buy books in hardback because that is a luxury that few Emglish majors who put themselves through school can afford. All of my hardback books are actually used.