My Mom's in the Cover Story of the Post Magazine, NBD

As I've mentioned before, I worked in a year-round Christmas store for the better part of my young adulthood. My neighbor owns the store and my mom is the assistant manager. This week they were the cover story of the Washington Post Magazine! Check it out! Christmas never ends at the Christmas Attic

Speaking of Christmas, I stumbled upon 97.1 WashFM this morning and realized they are already playing their all Christmas music all the time. I know plenty of people think it's way to early, but it was just too cheerful to turn off on this Monday morning. If you're not in DC, I believe you can find them with the I Heart Radio app that clear channel pushes so heavily (around here at least). They literally play all Christmas music 24/7 through Christmas.

I'll be back later this week to catch you up on some of the projects I've done in the last month, an adventure I went on last weekend, and some of my plans for the Christmas season. Have a great short week!

Map Fail.

Having majored in urban planning in college, I love maps. But sometimes an aerial view can go a little awry.

Take, for instance, a portion of this year's Marine Corps Marathon course map.

This ridiculously inapprop map can be found here. 

Nope, that's not a joke.

Happy Halloween weekend! Good luck if you're running on Sunday!

Another Throwback Costume

Some of you may recall last year's My Little Pony costume, which I'm still pretty pumped about. Everyone knew who I was, and I was right in the area of cute-but-not-skankalanky--exactly where I like to be on Halloween. For those of you who want details on last year's look, check out this blog post.

If I were to do it again this year (which I gave serious thought to doing), I might wear leggings instead of pants. Target has pretty cheap leggings in a variety of colors, and it might have been a little cuter. And you would've been able to see the hearts on the ankles of my pants better. I also would've worn short sleeves because I was HOT last year. Oh yes, and I would have reconsidered the jewels around the neckline, because that very subtly but totally ruined my shirt.

But enough about last year. It's time to move on to this year.

I should preface this by elaborating a bit more on my previous statement--you know, that I like to be in the area of cute-but-not-skankalanky. There's something about going to Party City and buying a super sexy version of Dorothy or Red Riding Hood that freaks me out a little. And it makes very little sense to me. Call me crazy but neither of them really seemed like hobags, so the repeated portrayal of them as such seems a bit off. But to each her own.

While I stay away from skanky territory, I'm also not a girl who wants to throw my femininity out the door when Halloween roles around. I like to hover around looking good but not slutty. (I think this is generally a good rule of thumb any day of year.) What I lack in slut-tasticness I attempt to make up for by being a little bit clever. After all, a conservative cat next to a skanky cat is not cute, it's lame. You have to go a different direction.

This year I'm pulling some inspiration from Jessica Quirk over at What I Wore and going as Carmen Sandiego. What can I say? I love the throwback costumes. I'll be wearing black leggings, a black shirt, red belt, red hat with a yellow ribbon, and black gloves. I used this costume as a fabulous reason to buy a cute rain coat that I can actually wear again, so I'll be sporting that as well. Still deciding whether I should wear boots or my fav black pumps.

photo of this cool cat found here

What are you going as this year? How do you find inspiration for your costumes? I'd love to hear what other people have planned for this weekend!

Guest Post at Chic Done Cheap

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being featured over at Chic Done Cheap. Check out my post about the Young, Hip & Handy Toolbox Essentials and explore the other great information that Maizie has to offer!

Projects in Progress...

It's been a while since I posted anything about DIY projects that I've completed at home. That's partially because I have so many project in progress, but not quite finished yet. Many of them involve my living room, so I'll give you a preview of a few things underway:

As you may have guessed, a few of these projects involve spray paint. I also have a project underway to deal with the sparsely decorated wall above the gigantic hand-me-down sectional in our living room...which I would show you if only I could locate my camera cord at the moment. 

Stay tuned for updates on projects that should be finished very soon!

A Quick Beginners' Guide to Pinterest

It's getting to be about that time when you might see something online and think "I should put that on my Christmas list". Or, if you're thinking ahead, you might be thinking about your Christmas shopping already.

One of the best things to happen to Christmas shopping for the 2011 season is Pinterest. As I described in this previous post, Pinterest is an application that is basically an electronic version of cutting pictures out of a magazine and pinning them to a bulletin board. With Pinterest, you can virtually "pin" images of what you want for Christmas onto a pin board, include price info and size too. The best part? Pinterest maintains the source of the original pin and you can view its original source by clicking on the image.

Never used Pinterest? You have to "request an invite" on the site, but that takes very little time. Alternatively, you can ask a friend to invite you, which speeds up the process a bit.

Pinterest can be a little confusing at first. "Re-pinning" pins from the boards you follow is pretty self-explanatory. You just roll over the image and select "re-pin". Pinning your own images can be confusing. In order to do it, follow the directions at the top of this page. They're a little less complicated than when I first started using the website.

Once you install the "Pin It" bookmark on your browser, you can click on it anytime you see an image on a page that you like. In your window a grid of all the images on the page will show up. Simply roll your mouse over the one you want to pin and click "pin". Then you can add a description/comment and list how much the item costs (if it's something to buy).

One CRITICAL thing to do is try to pin your image from a unique URL. For example, if you see something you like on a blog and you're on that blog's main page, click on the title of the blog post itself and pin the image from there. That way, your image will always go to a page with the original image and content. If you pin from the main page and then click on the image, then you will go to the main page even if the image has been cycled off and is on older pages.

The same thing goes for online shopping. If you see an image on a page that you're browsing, click on the individual item and pin the image from that item's unique URL.

One limit of Pinterest I've noticed is that some particular online retailers don't use image files on their item detail pages. In this case, sometimes it helps to pin it from the list of items but include the URL of the item itself.

I hope this makes sense. If anything in this post doesn't make sense, leave a comment and I'll clarify.

Happy pinning!

Sale Alert: Anthropologie Decorating Sale

As I've mentioned in a past post or two, I am definitely one to swoon over anthropologie's home decor selection. Today I got an email about new items added to the their home decoration sale. While most of their beautiful textiles are out of my price range, there are some very affordable hardware options. Here's a few things pretty thing I would pick up if I had any good reason to buy them and wasn't depressed by the credit card bill I paid yesterday:

This industrial/rustic table is really versitle. It would look great in a feminine room with a few rustic elements, or a masculine studio apartment.

Althea Side Table - $99.95, was $198.00

I wish I had somewhere to put a couple of these cool vintage-looking pendant lamps. The reviews say that the wire isn't long enough, but for that price you could easily switch out the wire yourself or rework it so that it's hardwired into the ceiling. From a renter's perspective, I actually like that it's not meant to be hardwired!

Sequoia Cone Pendant - $29.95, was $58.00

You all know my obsession with hardware. This sale is full of gorgeous knobs and hooks that used to be over $10.00 and are now reduced to about $3.00, which means we penny-pinchers can actually buy more than one of them.

I love the vintage look and gold accents of this flower knob. It also comes in lavendar and ivory.

Sussex Rose Knob - $2.95, was $10.00

This knob is part of the series that I bought for my desk. Which I still have to tell you all about. There was a bit of a change in game plan. And actually, I'm wondering if I should buy these instead, now that they're on sale...

Paterre Knob - $7.95, was $14.00

Another pretty knob. This is the kind of hardware that you would want to use to dress up your inexpensive Target or Ikea finds and make them look more high end.

Morning Glory Knob - $2.95, was $12.00

 Hooks are always a great thing to have in your house. I don't know where I'd put this one, but I like the modern look of it. Maybe hang your dog's leash or an umbrella from it by the front door? Now I'm thinking about how I want a dog...oh dear.

Bashful Brass Hook - $2.95, was $12.00

Simple and pretty hooks are surprisingly expensive, so this one is a steal. You could mount a bunch of them to a 2x4 like I did with my coat rack and hang it pretty much anywhere in your house.

Tarnished Hook - $2.95, was $12.00

There are sooooo many more goodies on their sale site that would be adorable in my home...and yours!Happy shopping!