Julie & Julia love

Have you all seen this movie?  If not, please do.  Right now. 

Amy Adams gives a warming performance and quite frankly, encourages me to continue with this blogging and then some.  After all, I did go to school to become a writer!

I can't even begin to describe how amazing Meryl Streep's performance was.  In nearly every scene, Badge and I were laughing and smiling and enjoying every bit of it. 

Not just anyone can take a scene this strange/gruesome/unappetizing and make it charming/appealing/cute.

To be quite frank, I loved this movie.  It was a little long, yes, but it made me feel so warm and fuzzy.  It made me feel inspired.  It made me love my soon-to-be husband (yes, I've taken to calling him that over my "fiancé" now that the time is nearer) even more for cooking me delicious meals all the time.  It made me want to continue blogging and it especially made me thankful for everyone who reads this blog of ours.  Last, it made me want to don an apron while baking sweets.  I think this one shall do:

I don't even LIKE mushrooms!  These seem to be the only kind of mushrooms I can get into.  (Photo via Cup of Jo via New House Textiles).  I smell a lovely Christmas gift... :)

(Julie & Julia stills via aceshowbiz.com)

A Very Special Badger Birthday

Today is my favorite guy's 28th birthday.  He doesn't know it yet, but we're about to go bowling with all of our closest friends.  I'm really excited about this day!

 Ok, so he's not 50 and his name isn't Kevin, but let's admit it: this cake is epic.

Happy birthday, baby!  I love you so much!!!

Lar Lar

We really do have an amazing group of friends who are creative and talented, not to mention good-looking! 

I really wanted to showcase some of Lauren's work on here and to let you all in on her talent.  Head on over to her website and admire those awesome paintings and animations. 

Tonight we are heading up to the Swimming Pool Project Space to check out some of her new work.  You should pay a visit too.  The exhibit runs through January 17th, 2010. 

A Castle, Architecture and lust

So for anniversary # 4, Badger & I are contemplating a journey to Southern Illinois to stay in this awesome castle bed and breakfast in the Shawnee National Forest. 

Pretty amazing, eh?

The architect, Bruce Goff, (shown "having an amazing shirt day"), was born in my home state - Kansas. He designed loads of buildings throughout the Midwest, all in his own organic architecture style.  

So, is it February yet?! Because I don't want to have to wait 2 months to go!

New music

When I was listening to NPR yesterday, there was a story on a new band, The xx.


It's lovely mellow music. I'm a sucker for a boy and a girl singing together.

And when I checked out who they were online, I discovered they came from my neighborhood in London! OK, so they're from the high school that used to beat up my high school on the bus, but when you're this far from home, you'll take what you can get. Now I like them even more!

P.S. They have quite the cover version on their MySpace page, see if you can spot it...

So many reasons to love etsy!

In the midst of my blog voyaging throughout the day, I stumbled upon this lovely etsy store called HELICOPTERstudios.  All of the stuff for sale in this store is all so darn cute! 

It's all handmade, and it folds up into a cute little tote.  What lucky kids to have such a creative, crafty mother.

The gift ideas continue...

Can somebody please send me this holiday card? I will display it all year round, I promise. 

Or how about these canvas bags.  So adorably awesome. So useful.  Yes, please.

So I don't have much use for notebooks these days, but why does that matter?  I would find a use for these!

Via Darling Clementine, one of the most adorable stores ever.

Gifts for Wee People

Gifts for wee people are so much fun. I just noticed a super-cute FB ad for American Apparel kids' clothes - indulge your mini-hipster!


I'm a sucker for these kiddos with tights where the legs are each a different color, and to be honest, I kinda wanted to see if I could squeeze into a pair of these myself...


I also got pretty excited to see these books for kids. I especially liked This is London (of course) and This is the Way to the Moon.


All adorable, wouldn't you agree?

We laughed - and then some!

How can cake decoration possibly go wrong? Here's Cake Wrecks, an entire blog dedicated to just that.

We just perused the New Discoveries in the Animal Kingdom page.

There's also pages and pages of turkey cakes from the holiday season.

I won't spoil the fun...