Sunday 26 April 2009

New Beats

There is nothing that drives me more crazy than listening to the same stuff on my iPod week after week. Thank God for NYLON magazine's new music intern Krissi Murison, who finds good stuff for sharply tuned ears week after week.

This week's electronic jem is Dollskabeat and her song "Zodiac Rising." I am a sucker for good beats and a sultry voice any day of the week. And of course, she is gorgeous, as all musicians seem to be.

Check out her tunes on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dollskabeat


Wednesday 22 April 2009

My Super Awesome New Bulletin Board

I am a huge fan of bulletin boards so you can imagine my delight when I found this giant bulletin board at Salvation army for 50% off of $2.50. Soo cheap that I got 2 of them!

I am happy to finally have a place to display some of the cute paper things I have collected in South Korea- post cards, stickers, call girl cards, and tags. Every time I look up at my bulletin board, I feel happy. I love seeing all of the things I love in one place. Visual stimuli overload!




Monday 20 April 2009

I Adore the New Tokidoki Shoes!

Ahhhhhh!

The new Tokidoki shoes for Onitsuka Tiger are the cutest yet! I totally want these and for only $115 bucks on pre-order they can be mine:)


If you like Tokidoki, check out their site for their new screen saver. It's free!

http://www.tokidoki.it/

Saturday 18 April 2009

Party in my Bedroom Circa 1999

Today, I thought I would reminisce about all of the good times had drinking and dancing with my friends during the many parties had in my bedroom. My bedroom was covered in posters, had a damn good sound system with monster speakers, and was lit with lava lamps and black light.


This was definitely underage drinking at its best. Seriously. Our stomachs were made of steel and we were always ready to guzzle down cheapie Hawkeye vodka or Nattie Ice. Sometimes, we would invite over a friend with a decent waitressing job and a generous wad of cash to supply us with better stuff.

Every one of these parties always involved dancing and singing to Aqua's "Barbie Girl" and Jill Sobule's "I Wanna Be a Supermodel." It's insane to think that probably everyone I knew then knew every single word to Sublime's original 1996 album but its probably true.

I would change my clothes about a dozen times before the end of the night, someone would always end up puking, and we would all pass out in my bedroom, snuggled up in my big waterbed, or wrapped in blankets on the hardwood floor.

In the morning, I recall someone waking up with a toothbrush stuck in their hair. We were all probably still pretty drunk but that didn't stop us from getting out and stumbling through garage sales bright and early in the morning.

Good times.

Friday 17 April 2009

Instructing You How to DIY

In honor of this upcoming Earth Day, I thought I would get back in touch with my inner DIY child and came about instructables.com. Instructables shows you step by step how to make zillions of projects from recycled materials for around the house, gifts, games, and life.

I am totally going to get out my toolbox and make some stuff this weekend:)


For more project ideas: http://www.instructables.com/

I thought the motherboard bracelet was super cool. Maybe my little bro can pass on a few old computer scraps for this project?

This one is a trip! They call it the inverted shelf and you hang everything upside down. What a cool idea! As a bonus, you could glue a flower vase or something upside down on to the shelf as well!

Mmmmm, gummy Legos! How cool is that?! They are soo rad that you can almost makeout the Lego logo on them as well.

I am definitely inspired now.......

http://www.instructables.com/

Nerdery

I have recently reverted back to an old favorite on the Nintendo DS- Animal Crossing:Wild World. I even have a friend to play DS to DS with, which is pretty exciting!

Anyhow, I thought I would take a few screen shots of my super nerdy character, Kimchi, who I made when I was in South Korea, of course. And the town is even named "Korea". Gotta love her green hair, Buddy Holly glasses, and grunge striped dress!


I like to harvest fruit for money. Here is a field of fruit I collected. Look at it in all of its vastness.

I have seriously thought about getting dressed and doing something this morning, but somehow making a geeky blog about something I like to do seemed like the thing to do instead.

Wednesday 15 April 2009

Purple Power

I am a huge fan of the color purple. It has definitely been my favorite color since I was a little kid. So when thrift shopping, purple things naturally catch my eye. These items were spotted at Artifacts in downtown Iowa City, IA.


Purple frame with Jesus artwork.

I totally had 2 of these when I was a kid! She-Ra was not my favorite toy and I ended up cutting off her hair and her arms and legs and writing bad stuff all over her face:) I was such a nice little girl!

These cute bears on a chair demand some love! What's even better? A gorgeous purple rug! I love red and purple color combinations.

My Secret Weapon

Since starting a new job, I have been busy, busy, busy! So busy in fact, that washing my hair all of the time is no longer an option. Since my hair is fine and oily, it often times looks aweful after only half a day of running around.

The solution? Bumble and Bumble dry shampoo!!! I simply spray this brown colored hair powder onto my roots, brush it out, and go. No more pesky showers or drying and styling my hair twice a day. With dry shampoo, I can be as lazy as I want and no one is any the wiser:)

Best hair product ever.

Wednesday 8 April 2009

The Other Love of My Life


If Easter has one thing going for it, it would be the candy. More specifically, the Cadbury Egg wins me over every time! Every spring time, stores stockpile the shelf with Cadbury Eggs and fans of this delicious treat in turn stock up their private candy stash at home. Or try to stock up, that is. Most of the time, Cadbury Eggs are soo amazing and irresistably good that people eat them all up and get major headaches and bellyaches in return. Small price to pay for that soft, creamy center and awesome chocolate shell!

The Cutest Knit Elephant There Ever Was!

My heart melted when I saw this adorable knit elephant at the Crowded Closet in Iowa City over the weekend. I especially love the colors the knitter chose for his blanket and the amazing little tassels tufted onto the sides. Sometimes, its the handmade things you find at the thrift store that strike your fancy the most as is the case with the knit elephant!


Tuesday 7 April 2009

Adorable, Tiny Food


Ever since childhood, I have been beyond fascinated with anything miniature. It probably started with needing props for Barbie and my American Girl doll, but it definitely did not stop there!

When I was in South Korea, I did manage to pick up a few original Japanese Re-Ment pieces here and there. Two of them were sushi sets, and the third was 50's Diner Mickey Mouse themed food. I love these miniatures for their perfect attention to detail and absolutely perfect quality. Also, each set was blind-boxed, meaning you don't know what you are going to get until you open it! How exciting!

In any case, I am back in the United States and have been dreaming and scheming on eBay for more Re-Ment pieces. With these, I would love to make little dioramas and re-creations of rooms, like a doll house. I think this would be very fun, but then again, I also have no children, no pet, and don't drink or do drugs, so I have to get pretty creative with what I do for fun!!!






P.S. The pink photos are from an Ebay auction I would love to win! You can check out the seller's store here:
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Mini-Barbie-Home__W0QQ_armrsZ1

Buy something for me if you would like:)

Making Mc Muffins


I don't know about you, but I seriously enjoy a good Egg McMuffin from McDonalds every so often. Unfortunately, I seldom get my ass into gear and get out of the house and to McDonalds by 10 a.m. or whatever crazy early time they decide to quit serving breakfast. So last Sunday, we decided to take matters into our own hands and make our own Egg McMuffins, which turned out super good.

What you need:
6 pack of muffins- $1.00
Canadian Bacon- $1.50
Eggs- $1.00
Cheese- $2.50

You can make 6 Egg McMuffins for only $6 bucks! Amazing, right?

My little brother actually did most of the cooking. He cooked those eggs perfectly, toasted the muffins lightly, and pan cooked the Canadian bacon to warm it. Lastly, he melted the cheese onto the egg and put the little sandwich all together to create culinary perfection.

McMuffins, AHOY!!!!



Monday 6 April 2009

Sup, Marshmallow Peeps?


Ahhhh, springtime. Flowers growing, snow melting, baby animals frolicking, and of course, EASTER CANDY!!!! One of my favorite Easter delights is, of course, Marshmallow Peeps. Talk about yummy!

When I was a kid, I was always excited to get these at the top of my Easter basket. The heavier Cadbury eggs and M & M's sunk to the bottom, but those fluffy and sugary delicious Marshmallow Peeps were always there to greet me first.

It is fun to do a Google search of "Marshmallow Peeps" and see all of the cute and funny things people have created with these little guys. I always personally preferred the Easter chicks over the bunnies, but I will take what I can get and there are tons of cute things you can do with the bunny variety of the treat.




Nintendo DSi - To buy or not to buy?


Nintendo finally released the new Nintendo DSi in the United States on April 5th. I know I am jobless, living in my boyfriend's bedroom, and practically eating out of garbage cans but seriously, it is hard to hold myself back from buying one!

On Sunday, my boyfriend and I stopped into the local Gamestop at Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines and the local scenester gamer kid working behind the counter smuggly let me know that the new Nintendo DSi was not for sale this first week, stricktly pre-order only. He did the little scene boy hair toss and played with his lip ring as he showed off his new DSi from behind the counter. Hmmmm. Tempting, right? Well, I still have one question, is the new Nintendo DSi worth all of the hype?

The new Nintendo DS features larger screens, 2 built in cameras, sound capacity, internal memory and SD card slot, ability to download games, more brigtness settings, and an internet browser. It is only slightly smaller and lighter than the old DS.

As far as the cons go, Nintendo only released the DSi in 2 extremely ugly colors- black and blue. Also, there is no longer a DS logo on the front of the DS and no Game Boy Advance slot. The new DSi is matte colored and generic looking, where my DS Lite is shiny and gorgeous after all of these years. Also, I heard the battery life is shorter on the new DSi. Oh, and the biggest con of all, the new Nintendo DSi is $170 bucks! No thank you!!!

So I guess the final verdict is in- I talked myself out of buying a Nintendo DSi..... At least for now.


P.S. If Nintendo were to cute up the DSi in the United States, maybe release it in pink or white, put the glossy coating back on the top, and lower the price, I will be sold on this product.

Cute Korean Tape

I decided to get crafty and decorate this little box I had with some of the decorative tape I picked up in Korea. For the record, decorative tape is awesome! The little rolls of tape are from stationary stores in South Korea largely populated with little kids. Everything at said stationary stores is cute, cheap, and colorful. Needless to say, I spent the majority of my pocket change in stationary stores!

The end result of my taping experiment was pure eye candy perfection. My box is completely covered in cute tape and now I can start the process of covering it in equally gaudy stickers.

Way to get crafty, me!


Blue Eyeshadow Girl

Yesterday, my boyfriend and I braved a freak blizzard here in Iowa to visit our siblings upstate. Naturally, we did the tourist thing and took a trip to Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines, Iowa on our way home. This mall has Sephora, the much loved and coveted makeup store that carries many independent and cool brands like Urban Decay and Benefit.

Well, what was in store for us at Sephora was not the usual catty bitches fighting over the latest lipliner. Instead, there was a completely unattended little kid making herself up in the mirror with all of the trial products. She went to town with some bright blue Urban Decay product on her eyelids and then moved on to the Dior section to savvily try out shades of lipstick and blush until she found the right shade.

Although the little girl looked completely comical with her clown blush, drag queen blue eye shadow, and too dark lipstick, a happy sentimental part of my heart warmed to this kid. She was in the zone, she found something very fascinating and feminine, and through the next 10 or so years of trial and error with make-up, she is bound to someday be a super cool and put together woman!


P.S I was not ballsy enough to snap a photo of the kid in the store putting on makeup so these are totally just Googled images of "little girl makeup."

My Friends Are Lucky Charms

Gotta love treasure trolls. I myself had a decent collection of them as a kid and actually got to take them to BINGO on Wednesday nights with my mom and grandma in the basement of St. John's Catholic church. When we arrived, all of the old ladies were chatty as they arranged their good luck charms and bingo dobbers strategically in front of their many cards. I got my own card too!

Once the announcer started to call the numbers, any noise I made would result in glares from hell from old ladies and "Shhhhhh." Oh the agony for an 8 year old! If I won, I would get very shy and tug at my mom's sleeve to get her attention so she could shout "BINGO!" for me. During speed BINGO sessions, those little old ladies would play 10 cards at a time, frantically dobbing and searching for numbers. At this point, my mom would take pity on me and send me off with 50 cents to go get a candy bar. I keep looking back at these times of going to BINGO with my mom and grandma and wondering if they were good times or bad ones?

In any case, I found these treasure trolls at the Crowded Closet in Iowa City, Iowa the other day and felt many fond memories towards these homely little things. Are they soo ugly that they are cute?

Saturday 4 April 2009

Photofunia is Pretty Fun!

Gotta love Photoshop! Thanks to a slew of free photo editing programs on the net, you can reap the benefits of Photoshop without putting the effort into it! The other day a friend on Facebook had posted some great photoshopped goodies of herself online so I decided to follow suit and try some for myself. Very gratifying and easy! Maybe you can try it for yourself?


Check it out at: http://photofunia.com/