Peppered Thought – The Spice of Life

This Friday, I want to take you on a little trip inside your brain. But, for this example, we will be going through my brain.

Achievable dreams are the kind of daydreams that are constrained by time and money. That may sound really negative, but, it is in fact a spectacular way to start daydreaming if you have got out of the habit. Starting with just five things is an excellent way to not get overwhelmed, either. So, this week’s Take Five will be things that I can easily achieve within the first four months of the new year.

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• growing then eating veggies from garden (which will help in my longer achievable goal of losing some weight). I can only hope it will be as productive as Ramsey’s!

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• throwing a housewarming party at the end of February. It would be fun to have a breakfast brunch (waffle toppings! mimosas! chocolate in the morning!) with a bunch of friends.

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• impromptu weekend trip. I would love to pack up the car (or borrow a heavier-duty vehivle if going off-road) and “rough it” for a weekend with my two favorite boys. Although one still may need a sweater on a cold forest night.

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• photoshoot. I’m not sure what I want the shoot to entail (night shots? backlighting project? balloons?) but making photoshoot ideas will help me achieve my last goal of

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• getting a new camera. I am lucky to have several very prestigous photojournalist friends, and so I get the pleasure of picking their brains on best camera options.

What are your top 5 in the future attainable dreams?

Imagine this: you have Friday night all planned. Meeting up with a girlfriend directly after work (yes you brought a change of clothes!), grab a nice pre-game dinner (my pick: some sort of healthy pita place, because you know after you’ll be headed to a greasy spoon), then head out to a bar/club/art event/roller derby match. You want to look your best, but you also don’t want to look like you’re going to a club all workday long. What’s a time-strapped girl to do?! Grab an empty Altoids tin, throw these essentials in, and you’re on your glamorous way!

• eyeliner pencil. For the smudgy, smoky, mysterious girl look, I like the 99¢ pencils. Then again, I’ve never tried Dior and such so I wouldn’t know how those fancy ones fare. But, I would stay clear of the middle ground eyeliners. Either you get the cheap-o ones that run like the dickens when you rock out, or you buy the crème de la crème.
• blush.  I like to rouge a little bit more when I go out, since dark lights drown out any color. Warning: not too much! There’s a thin line between flush and vibrant and scary clown. Learn to tread with caution.
• red lipstick. I find it very hard to find a drugstore red that doesn’t make me look like a clown, so i like to mix my own keep in a small, vintage tin (a tin within a tin, so meta!)
• dangly, sparkly earrings. I recommend diamond-type chandeliers, because they sparkle best at every angle of low light.
• small perfume sample. luckyscent is an amazing place to stock up on samples of perfume if you don’t have the cash, or aren’t sure about the smell. My all-time favorite is Vanille Bourbon. Hands down the best vanilla perfume ever. No sickly sweet candy smell that makes you nauseated because you smell like you’re oozing cotton candy from your pores (which wouldn’t be bad thing, until you have to go to the dentist)

They’re bigger, cooler, and cheaper than having to go get some from the eye doctor. Thanks to hours of scouring some cool websites, I found these babies and was ready to take the plunge. All you need is your prescription and you’re on your way to getting some new glasses!

I think the next pair will be red. I miss the badass old red ones I had.

I am taking care of my puppy, Tortilla, home from the vet, and need to relax (I’m at Mom-level worrying right now). I’m taking a writing break and listening to this on a loop:

What is your favorite thing to listen to when you need to de-stress?

Another installment of word origins!

Hapless – meaning “unfortunate,” first began use in 1568. Stemming from the Old Norse word “happ,” meaning “chance, luck or good fortune.”  Who better to illustrat hapless than Gilligan?

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Sundries - meaning “miscllaneous items” from the Old English syndrig “separate, apart, special.” Phrase ‘all and sundry’ first recorded 1389; sundries “odds and ends” is first found 1755.

I somehow stumbled upon this website and was awed by most everything she had on there, but the tag “A Dress and a Gig Poster,” from which I took my title, was my favorite. They don’t have to be the same pattern, but generally the same colors, but most importantly, the same kind of mood. I really liked this.

So, I thought I’d do a little homage. But instead of limiting myself to just gig posters, I decided to do album covers as well. The reason? This first example:

Judas Priest’s “Screaming for Vengeance.” This cover was just begging for someone to compare a dress to it. Have no fear, I will fulfill! This shoe makes me swoon as well; it fits so perfect as a talon I could scream!

Herb Alpert. The album cover that launched a thousand whipped cream fantasies, made wearable as a wedding dress. I even added the rose earrings to match the one Dolores Erickson holds.

Who Killed Amanda Palmer. It was probably her killer sense of style. Was that too much? Okay, I’ll try and rein in the cheese-factor.

bloc party gig poster, with some seriously graphic shoes and a dress that positively purrs.

Best of the Beach Boys. Plaid, khaki, and the ever-cool beach.