Down Vests

I would like to buy a new down vest... do I really need one? Well... the old one is getting pretty old... and I love it. So yah, I guess it's on my list. The question is what one to go for...


Down Sweater Vest by Patagoina, 120 off Backcountry... I've always been kind of a Patagucci girl...The North Face Aconcagua.... 98 at Backcountry colors are questionable

Or Northface Redpoint, 98 off Backcountry....I wish I weren't such a gear snob.

Haven't we been lame

Well, I up and moved to a small town in midcoast Maine for the summer (...and beyond...). And not only am I in this small town, but I am also in the woods of this small town. At a summer camp. Sharing the internet with thirty other people. And running a summer camp. Needless to say there wasn't much time for blogging. I haven't decided if I will return to the blogging world in full force, seeing as life is more simple than in Somerville, but hellos are certainly in order.

The summer is done and no more Sunday=spaghetti day=kids' first day at camp. Sunday now = weekend. Phew. It was quite the lovely summer though, filled with bubbles, silly band trading, tunes and laughs. Another successful season, and a bunch of happy campers.

I'm excited to transition into a slower paced life working normal work hours during a normal work week, but still doing fun things with people I love.

Liking it

Here's a site I'm really liking--groovier than Etsy, I think.

And P.S. I had a birthday four days ago.

Silly Bandz

I'm all for them. Except for the 'z'.

These are the best fad ever. I'm trying to think of the fads from my youth:
silly bandz vs. tamagachi
silly bandz vs. pogs
silly bandz vs. JNCO jeans
silly bandz vs. Nickelodeon

I purchased three packs the other day so I can give them out to my counselors at camp this summer (moving up for real tomorrow!) so we can prove we're cool enough... and trade. I wore two to school today--puzzle piece shaped.

P.S. Kelsey will be receiving a BFF shaped silly band when she arrives home (she's in Washington!...bet she won't check the blog while she's gone!)

Tom's

My Tom's are starting to smell, and that's what's bothering me. I don't mind that the edges are starting to rip and that the sewed in plastic bit by the heel has been long gone. Nah, they look loved. They are loved. But now they're starting to SMELL loved. So I want some new ones. And I want the same ones (navy blue classic) BUT check out these fabulous new wedges from Tom's! I will also be looking into getting myself a pair of these.

BP: Big Problem

I'm loving this behind the logo post of BP's logo at Design Fetish.

T-Shirts

Threadless has the best shirts. I'm sad to say I've been out of a graphic T phase for a while sticking to plain colored V-necks. BUT this shirt has got me wanting it... maybe in a V-neck.
via Threadless

Edible Crayons

I love crayons. I always have. I still have a set of bathtub crayons that I occasionally use. But these are the most fabulous crayons to date: EDIBLE CRAYONS from Luxiare.

And just look! The ingredients are organized by color! Are those dried apricots I see?


I do think the orange will taste best.

G.M. finally has a good idea.

Oh, thanks G.M. for finally recognizing global warming as a real possibility. And thank you for finally stop producing that horrible eye-sore of a Hummer. Today the very last Hummer rolled off the production line and never again will we have another re-make (The H3? Honestly?). (Image via)

So I'll flick that nasty yellow hummer from my neighborhood off one last time. (No I won't. I'll keep flicking you off.)

That's Diesel.

It really is. As in literally. Also as in awesome, but I sure am glad that it never really did enter anyone's lexicon. But it's true, my beautiful new car is, in fact, a diesel. Let's get specific: a 2005 Volkswagon Golf GLS TDI: translation: adorable and badass.

After many years of yearning for a new car, and a few months of actually needing one, I have made a purchase. It is Jessie approved. It is parentally approved. It's Kelsey approved. Hell, it's even Matt approved, and he's the hardest to please! Everyone is happy; I am ecstatic.

Here she is, a ten year upgrade from my last ride. Expected 40+ mpg= 600 a tank = DOUBLE what my last car got, god bless her. Oh, and the T stands for Turbo; so it's got good pick up.

This isn't the best photo I've ever taken, but it's because I'm blinded by the beauty.

Are you excited?

I'm pretty excited. And how fabulous would it be to be one of the four in this picture: shoes off, drinks, and fresh food. Yay!

Check out these sexy outfits

So I did it! Ran my first 15k road race (Sugarloaf Marathon and 15k) and finished. Check out our awesome running outfits below. I ran it in 1:22:45, a pace of about 8:53min/mile. See the race results here! (62nd place)

Baking with Vegetables and Alcohol

Baking kick numero dos: This time no one was leaving. This time there was zucchini on sale, and a pot luck to attend. And I was feeling adventurous.

First, a mish-mosh of veggies to create these delicious, Zucchini-Carrot-Apple-Coconut-Walnut-Cinnamin-Ginger-Nutmeg muffins. I love any sort of baked treat with zucchini, but this was a spin off of my favorite muffin back in Brunswick (Glorious Morning Muffins from the Bohemian Coffee House). Not quite the same perfection, but pretty damn good. AND I made a bunch, so I'm experimenting with FREEZING MY MUFFINS.



And then I had to run off to a potluck at a friend's. I had made my most delicious corn salad (corn-jalapeno-walnut-feta), but got greedy and decided to keep it for the week's lunch. Instead I created by moshing a few recipes together, these delicious chocolate rum cupcakes with cream cheese, lemon rum frosting.

Unfortunately, I had to take the green line over (UGH) and the B line was super slow. The cupcakes lost a little of their original beauty on the way, but still tasted yummy.

Bookshelves

I love books. You know this. Here are some of my favorite bookSHELVES:



via

via

via (I actually own this; M. got it for me like three years ago for my birthday)

And here is someone else's list of awesome bookshelves, of which I certainly approve.

I have missed you

Hello All,

You might have noticed that the posts have become extremely lopsided recently (Jessi has written everything for the past two weeks). I have been neglecting you severely, but no worries I am back and ready for some more blogging and bitching. This is just a quick update and a sneak peak of things to come. One quick note, I will be running the Sugarloaf 15k race this weekend, so if you are in the area come cheer us on! My team will be wearing lots of neon colors! On a more serious note, please pay attention to the on-going conflict that is going on in Arizona, the actions against immigrants are not only unethical they are unconstitutional ( I will stop here, but don't worry I have a good rant coming it will sound something like Arizona can suck it). Also, the oil spill in the gulf is a serious environmental crisis and will have a profound effect on local fishermen and oystermen. The entire fishing and oyster grounds are currently closed, so keep this in mind as well! I'll be back soon with much more rants and raves! Loves you all!

Hot Damn

Happiness in Bed

Always. Except when you're reading and your fingers get cold. That's what this is for:

Oh Boston, you're my home

I do love that dirty water... but not this boiled water situation.

There's also a mug. I'll boil my water then brew my coffee then drink it out of the mug

J.Crew Fashion Show

We went to our local(what up Cambridge!) J.Crew today for a sneak peek of some new pieces. There were some clients who modeled clothes and strutted their stuff, OJ, muffins, and bottled water (timely!). PLUS 20% off our purchases. Don't worry, we milked it.

Here's my favorite of Kelsey's purchases:


And my favorite of the day, complete with sequins:




Oh, and we bought these too a few weeks ago. (Mine is actually a light denim)

Don't drink the water

We have officially turned our home into a water boiling factory. With the ginormous watermain issue over in Weston, unfortunately, Somerville (and most of Boston!) has a boil water order going. Oh dear.

L.L. Home

M. and I romped around the L.L. Bean stores this weekend. (Unfortunately, no new L.L.Bean Signature stuff.) Naturally, I wanted to go for the Smartwools and backpacks. M.'s all over the guns. And well, we did contemplate matching fishing vests. It was just a nice evening of browsing and being the goofy kids we are.

For the first time I walked into the L.L.Bean home store, formerly the L.L.Kids store, complete with climbing wall(!). It looked like a cottage cliche threw up everywhere. I was overwhelmed with wicker and pastels. BUT they had brilliant displays for all of the kitsch. There were hunderds of these fabulously simple wooden and metal boxes.




And finally, the piece de resistance, there was a beautiful, industrial looking island on wheels that they used to serve fancy food on. Perfect.


You can expect to see these things in my home someday.

Running Update

So I told you guys I would keep you posted on my running. So far this week I have done two four mile runs. Sarah and I ran together yesterday, 4 miles with a pace of 8:24!! That is my best pace so far. Running with Sarah is the best motivation she is a running beast! What she is right now is my goal! Here is the map of our run, two crazzy hills, but overall it was a good route.

Wind Farms are Beautiful

Congress approved the first off-shore wind farm in the US today!! I love wind farms and I wanted to share some of my own photos with you from a wind farm in upstate New York. For all of you who may be against wind farms or believe all the negative things you hear about them, I suggest you visit one before forming any opinions. I stood directly beneath one and was not at all disturbed by any loud noise or mysterious earth shaking, just sayin... Enjoy the pics!

Baking

M. is shipping out, and well, I just don't want him to. As a last ditch effort to keep him here, I'm appealing to his stomach. I've gone on a baking kick inspired by this site.

First,
Chocolate sour cream cupcakes with nutella frosting. Yummmm--straight from Ming makes cupcakes. They are solidly delicious.





Then, my favorite molasses/ginger cookie recipe (cause the boy <3's them) with orange/lemon filling. Turned out pretty well but the filling is too sweet... I over did it with the powdered sugar I guess! But the spicy cinnamon/ginger/nutmeg with the citrus = ooo lala!

Hipsters can suck it

In case you didn't know hipster bug the hell out of me. I hate their overly trying-not-to-be-trendy but really trendy attitude/clothing/lifestyle. Grist has written this amazing article that chronicles why hipsters are so goddamn annoying, check it out!!

Thanks to our awesome follower Sarah for discovering this article!

Running Sucks..

And yet I have decided that it is a new hobby I should pick up. For all of you who are "runners" you can suck it. Haha just kidding. I am secretly jealous of your awesome running ability. Your sticktoitness that enables you to reach a level of physical fitness where you look graceful when you run and not like a wheezing 70 year old smoker (me). So anyways, I have decided I am going to start running and because the only thing that motivates me is competition I have decided to sign up for a 10k road race on July 4th. I started using the nike iPod running thing, which basically tracks your pace and distance throughout your run. I am two runs in to my official training program and so far things are going good. Of course I am anticipating getting over the initial excitement of being able to run a 9 minute mile for 4 miles straight (I know, holy shit awesome), and begin to dread these weekly runs. But I am also hoping that I will become a "runner". We shall see, I'll keep you posted, unless I give up and then I will probably neglect my updates in an attempt to hide my own failure.

Fashion from a Preschooler

I have one little girl in my class who always comes in dressed to the nines. Stella McCartney for Babygap kind of stuff--and in a color pallet I can relate with: jewel tones, earthy browns and greens...basically how I want to dress my kid and how I dress myself. None of that Lily Pulitzer green and pink shit. Vomit. And mom and I have talked, and she knows I love her child's style (/her style--she dresses uber well too). Today was the icing on the cake, although a little more girly than usual:

She sported this gap dress:


Over a similar white blouse (this one from gap):


With a little floral blazer topping it off (crewcuts):


With her usual little pink Dr. Martin mary janes. Perfection.

Happy Earth Day!

Pick One? Sometimes it's hard!

I'm really liking this. I'm not fully understanding it, but it's reminding me of some of the weird social psychology tests that are out there. There's a screen, and you need to choose one:

You can see by the red, I went for Superman.

This one would be the most difficult for Kelsey:

And this one was the most difficult for me:

There's also a list of the top ten:
love, sex, music, kissing, freedom, dreams, sleep, the internet, health peace
And bottom ten:
aids, cancer, fascism, disease, famine, 9/11, war, hell, hate islam