Song Saturday!

I can't find a video online, but today's song Saturday is "Spanish Pipedream" by The Avett Brothers.

You should probably try to look it up. I promise it's good!

and for those of you who won't, here's the original (The Avett Brothers covered it.)


I hope you're having a great weekend!

across America.

I can't deny it, I was proud when he stopped and took a picture of Mt. Rushmore. I'm going to go plan a trip home now.

a little hello.

You know those people who are really tired and then take their lives more seriously?

I'm not really one of those people. Not today, at least.

So I made a little video for today's post to show you a couple random new things.

and I was wrong! The ring is from South Carolina, not NC. S, please forgive me. :)

laying the blame.

Last night I went from listening to this:


to this:


I blame my (always) diverse music preference on my mood. and my childhood in South Dakota. and my mothers love of Queen, Reba, and Michael Jackson. and my good friend KV's influence. and the fact that I had a crush on him when we met so I pretended that I listened to Radiohead. (and then went out and bought The Bends so we would have something to talk about.) and my brothers obsession with The Final Countdown during my formative years. and the fact that my best friend in high school and I would drive around blaring Ironic to get pumped up before our basketball games.

so really, I blame South Dakota. but I wouldn't have it any other way.

what have you been listening to?

a beautiful sunrise.

I woke up Sunday morning at 6am, naturally, and saw a bright pink light being reflected onto the wall next to my bed. I rose, walked to the window, and saw the sun just peeking above the trees on the other side of the lake. So I tiptoed out of the room, down the stairs, out of the cabin, onto the dock and sat and watched the sun rise, and a foggy mist dissipate into the air over the lake. Two ducks were wading to and fro, I had goosebumps.

These are the moments worth writing about.

(all images untouched. partly because I liked them the way they are, partly because I'm a tired lady.)

I hope your weekend was magical.

Song Saturday!

5 Years Time - Noah and the Whale

I'm in love. Fun fun fun, sun sun sun.

I'm also having lots of fun in the sun at my friends cabin this weekend. What are you up to?

(song seen on this blog and this blog. both fabulous!)

Fill in the Blank Friday

Another fill in the blank Friday from here.

1. My favorite thing about this week has been late night chats with friends!

2. The weather this week has been extra muggy, but this morning made up for all of it with its fresh breezes and 70-degree weather.

3. The last (interesting) item I received in the mail was pictures from my cousin Kari's wedding, where 2 of my cousins and I are having cupcake wars (trying to get frosting on the other one. Sometimes I act like I'm 8.)

4. The last movie I saw was Everybody's Fine from Redbox. It was interesting but much sadder than I expected it to be. The people I saw it with made up for that, though.

5. If I could be doing anything I felt like today I would just be getting out of bed (2 hours later than I actually did), making a shopping trip for groceries and preparing salads for our adventure up north this weekend! Then, we would get there in record time and jump into the lake, go on the boat and have lots of food, fun, smores and laughs.

6. As a teenager I was a pretty wild child. I dressed up in lots of different colored clothing and called it "fashion Fridays." This must have been my sophomore year in high school, but the craziest thing was that other people started dressing up on Fridays, too! They asked me what the theme for that Friday would be and everything. So silly. I also played a lot of sports and really enjoyed talking. Loudly.

7. I wish I could trade lives for the day with hmmm...this is a tough one. I was going to say a woman I know who started a nonprofit, then I thought of another person I know who started a nonprofit, and that just kept spiralling into more people I know who are in nonprofits (how do you choose?!.) And then I thought of a small business owner and came up with a few more names. But really, if I could trade lives today with someone, it would probably be my grandma S. I'd like to hang out on the farm and make grandpa his dinner and do some crafts and maybe plan a trip and just have the schedule she has. She has worked hard for it, don't get me wrong, I just think her life turned out pretty great.

Fanfarlo.

The band Fanfarlo makes very interesting music videos! In the first one there is a Houdini-esque escape, and in the second an almost film noir take on what happens when friends try to intercede in a suicide attempt. (This seems really dark in the beginning but trust me, the ending is better.)

Their music is really comfortable-feeling, like Mumford and Sons, with hints of violin and other strings that tug a bit at the heart and a strong back beat that keeps it pumping. I love when music builds, and they are really successful at making that happen, and then dropping it back down and building it all up again.



This music is perfect for the muggy, post-rain day we are having. I got very nostalgic for London this morning when I stepped off the bus. Something about the crowded streets, puddles of water, and steamy smell of the city mixed just right to make me long for the days I was abroad. Maybe it's time to return?



If you like what you hear, listen to more on their homepage or myspace.

walk it out.

This past Living Luesday (Tuesdays with Sarahnae{d}) was pretty hot, and full of girls not quite knowing what their next step is.

What do you do when you don't know what to do?

Walk it out. (theme music here.)
After eating delicious Punch pizza, this girl and I walked around Lake of the Isles in uptown Minneapolis. We had planned on maybe walking a quarter of it and then turning around, but that just wouldn't do. We got to talking about major changes that are happening in our lives, and before we knew it, we were over halfway around! I think one of my favorite parts about the walk is that there was never an agenda, not anything that we specifically had to get out or say, we both just get things wrapped up in our minds too often and need someone else there to work it out with us. So we kept walking. Well, we stopped to take in this view:Living Luesdays always turn into something incredible, even when we don't have it planned out. I'm so lucky to have a day set up specifically to get to know my friend and city better. If you have any time in your week, I definitely recommend trying it! I'd never gone to this particular lake before (because when you're in Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes, there are far too many options) but it was beautiful and perfectly laid out for a casual stroll. There were bikers, people rollerblading, runners, the whole gang. And we walked it all out.

Hope you're having a fabulous day!

a little update.

I'm still in the applying, interviewing, and waiting stages of job searching. I've had a lot of questions about it lately, so I thought I'd update you all! Once I figure things out more, I'll definitely share here. Thanks for all of the interest and shows of support!

In other news, I'm learning how to crochet! I spent about 4 hours last night double crocheting and, although my fingers were not so happy about the workout, I think I really got the hang of it. Photos of what I'm working on to come sometime soon!

Journal for a Cause

I said I'd share more about this with you, so here we go! I've signed up for Janel of I heart run with scissors' Journaling for a Cause class! Her motives for the class are incredible: to raise money for her and her husbands upcoming adoption.

In her words:

As most of you know, my husband and I are planning on adopting a child in the next year or two. This is obviously a crazy process and a crazy EXPENSIVE process at that.

So I was thinking of hosting another journal class, with new prompts, new challenges, giveaways, chats, and a fun community of online friends to share it with. I was thinking that if I could charge $10 for a class spot and make it a private blog for participants only, it would be a great way to earn money for our adoption!

There are still a few spots left (as of this morning) so if you want to join me, purchase one here!

berry good.

I made this pretty dessert last night! It's a berry galette from Julia Child's cookbook, Baking with Julia. Quite a few friends got together last night to cook all sorts of dishes, each of us trying one anothers and then taking home a mixture of the leftovers for lunches this week! It was so delicious and I'm really excited to have lunches ready for me when I get home every day. I'll do a bigger post about this when I get my hands on better photos, but for now I'll just leave you with this little taste.

How was your weekend? Have you been cooking or baking anything extra delicious that I could try sometime? I'm planning on doing some baking this week, so I'd love new recipes!

Numbers Don't Lie

This is from The Mynabirds and called Numbers Don't Lie.

Just a poppy little tune for your Saturday. I really like all of the confetti and the shots at the bowling alley.

Happy Saturday! I've been hanging out at home this morning, drinking coffee and watching some Friends episodes with my roommate. I plan on going to the beach for a little while to get some sun and then heading to a baseball game later! Lazy summer days are fabulous. Hope you have a great one!

Fill in the Blank Friday

I saw this on this blog and thought, "I could do that!" So here we are, Fill in the Blank Friday. Feel free to put your own answers in the comments or on your blog if you have one!

1. A very nostalgic place that reminds me of being a kid is , believe it or not, the Mall of America. We used to travel to the cities at least once a year to visit my mom's sister (and kids) and we would always get to go to the MOA to go shopping!

2. If someone really wants to show me how much they love me they should A. come hang out with me, B. write me a letter (I can't even explain how happy I get when I get mail...or blog comments!) and C. ICE CREAM. Really, they should genuinely want to spend time with me and actually listen to what I'm saying. (I get quite impatient when I have to repeat myself multiple times.)

3. Lately I've been wondering a lot about where I'll be come September.

4. When it comes to saving money I am trying extra hard to stick to a budget. It's a work in progress.

5. I'd prefer face time over Facebook any day!

6. I wish I knew how to make so many things! That is why I'm currently taking the Red Velvet Art summer camp online class and have signed up to Journal for a Cause! (More on that last one soon!)

7. I'm just waiting for my 9-day August vacation! I need a little getaway.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

why thank you, mailman.

Mailman: shaking his head "You give workers a bad name."

Me: "I do? Why's that?"

Mailman: "Because you're always smiling and happy whenever you come in here."Yes, I did. You can't really see it, but that's The Undomestic Goddess, fabulously purchased for $3 at Half Price Books.

I'm going to start working on that self-restraint now.

sophie kinsella.

I have an author crush.

And it's not some high profile, really challenging writer that makes me think incredibly intelligent thoughts. No, it's chic lit that I zip through so quickly I can hardly stand it and then want every one of my friends to read so we can talk about it and work through the very real crushes we've developed for the imaginary characters.

It's pretty great.

The author is Sophie Kinsella. She writes the Confessions of a Shopaholic series, which I have never read, but I did watch the movie! Instead of diving into that series, I've been salivating over her "stand alone novels," or the ones that come with their own unique characters and plots and keep me up late at night, turning the pages, wishing the books were longer so I could chill in that girly world all night.

It all started with this book, which I read the night before my last final ever:
Then I discovered half price books. The used bookstore. This was dangerous. I proceeded to buy these two books (at half price!) and devour them in about a weeks time:Now I have a problem on my hands. I told myself that I couldn't buy any more books until I read the (many) I still have on my shelves. But I'm starting to flail. I can sense the need for witty, quick writing and may have to give in and get the last stand alone book she's published:The worst part of all of this? She does have that Shopaholic series that I could always pick up. And she writes under another name (Madeleine Wickham), so there are more opportunities for a little Kinsella writing. These are definitely my guilty pleasure books, perfect for summer.

Do you have any authors, tv shows, movies, etc. guilty pleasures that you want to get off your chest? Because it definitely helped me.

If by helped, you mean I'm probably going to go buy that last book after work today.

Self-restraint? What's that?

p.s. if anyone wants to read any of these, let me know and we'll do a little swap!

in one month:

I'll be taking one of these:

with these women:to explore this body of water a little bit more:
and I'm so excited I'm doing a bit of this:Any guesses (for those of you who don't know) of where we'll be going?

lake days are for enjoying.

from here.

The day at the lake was wonderful. We ate, and ate, and played volleyball and went out in the boat. We had most of the calm, cool lake to ourselves, save for a few fishing boats patiently sitting at the other end. The six of us climbed in and pushed off and then couldn't get the engine started so K's dad kayak-ed out to us, started it up without a moment's hesitation, and then kayak-ed right back to the dock. We jumped in off of the front of the boat, doing swan dives, big splashy jumps, and a little bit of reckless fleeing. Then came the tubing, where I was nominated first to go and held on for dear life as the boat swung in patterns of 8 and I tried hard as ever to keep up the smile because 5 pairs of eyes were on me and my clumsy, gripping, about-to-fall-off-the-large-piece-of-foam-mascarading-as-a-tube self.

There were big jumps, lots of waves, so much water in the face, eyes, nose, and then after a long run, a bump just big enough to make me lose control happened and my grip loosened enough to fling me into the water. I cannot explain the amount of water that went up my nose. It was incredible.

A few others took turns on the tube and, except for Nate who has the upper arm strength of a body builder, I won the race for longest rider. We then put out the anchor and swam some more, all of us floating on the tube at one point until the sky started covering itself with clouds and the wind picked up a bit and we all understood that it was time to go back in.

I love lakes. I want to live on a lake. The beauty of it is undeniable. Being out on the water, just chilling for hours is something that I always cherish. This is a pretty sing songy way of saying all of this, but I had a fabulous day on the water, on the lake, at my friend's house.

And I have the incredibly sore muscles today to prove it. Maybe I shouldn't have hung on to that tube for so long.

Happy Sunday!

I'm going to be traveling a little ways out of town to a friends house on the lake today. Hopefully the rain will hold off (or finish its sprinkling by the time we get there) and the sun will come out for us. If not, I'll be hanging out indoors with some really good people anyways. Hope you have a relaxing Sunday!

looking good.

nae-say the blog is undergoing a couple of cosmetic changes. What do you think? Let me know if you like it, if you can still read the text, how much fun you're having today, what you like about me...(just kidding on that last one.)

But! If you only read this blog through Google Reader, you might want to head on over to the original page for a little peek at the happy changes.

Summertime Playlist

I've put together a little Summertime playlist for you! Enjoy. And, as always, feel free to suggest new songs or bands to me in the comments. I love it!

just a little taste.

I'm a lucky girl some days. Actually, in all honesty, I have been an incredibly UNlucky girl lately. But I still know some cool people. And one of those cool people is named Theo, and he worked his magic and got us free admission to Taste of MN last weekend. We went on the night that some really fabulous bands were playing (Friday) and it was wonderful! I saw Dawes, Minus the Bear, heard a little of The Walkmen (we were on a free boat ride while they were playing), saw P.O.S. AND Atmosphere. Whew. It was so, so good. And since it was called Taste of MN, I'm here to give you a taste of a few bands we saw on that hot, sticky summer night in St. Paul.

When My Time Comes - Dawes

My Time - Minus the Bear

Sunshine - Atmosphere (definitely one of their calmer songs, but I'm a fan. I also really like The Waitress.)

I'm working on a summer playlist for the blog which will probably be up this weekend. Maybe I'll just start bringing back Song Saturdays?

so how was your fourth?

Fourth of July was a marathon, not a sprint, in my world. T, my good friend, and I went to 3 different bbq's and fireworks and back again. I had SO very much fun and got to see a bunch of friends that I don't get to hang out with nearly often enough.

The fireworks show I went to was at the Stone Arch Bridge near downtown Minneapolis. A group of us found a steep, grassy hill to camp out on and could view the river and bridge and beautiful fireworks from our own little world. It was wonderful, but so odd not being at home. I'm almost always home for the 4th, and last year was a big town celebration for the 125th anniversary so I was around all sorts of people I grew up with.

Luckily this year I even got to spend some time with participants from our pay it forward tour this past March. And here we are, in our (primarily sunburnt) glory!
What did you do for the Fourth?

I'm digging:

David Bazan
photo from here

and I got hooked by this song:

"I swung my tassel to the left side of my cap/ knowing after graduation there would be no going back"

Listen to more here or here.

I put him on and gave my room a much needed cleaning last night. It's kind of been looking like a tornado went through it, and no one cared to clean up the wreckage, but now I can see the floor again and don't feel so crazy when I step inside. I'm usually really good at keeping my room clean because when I'm home, I spend most of my time in it, doing little projects or talking to friends or crafting. I spent quite a bit of time painting the walls and framing pictures or maps to go on them just to make it feel cozy. It's going to be an odd day when I finally paint the walls back to white and take the pictures down (my lease is up at the end of August.) Until then, though, listen to a little Bazan and do something productive. Small victories, people (like simply getting your dresser drawers to shut - see below.) Sometimes all we need is a small victory.

Big Appetite.

It's taken awhile, but I just may have come across a band that could be my rolling summer CD 2010. (Last year's was Phoenix, for sure.) Their name is ALO, and they have a very beachy, summer vibe to them, which probably has to do with the fact that Jack Johnson is their producer.

Now! This is my 201st post on this blog! Fun times. It is also the 1st of July! Wow. I cannot believe it, honestly. So, as a salute to Janel of I heart run with scissors, I'm going to make a list of things I want to accomplish in July.

1. Apply to at least 3 new jobs each week. (until I get one that's right for me!)
2. Fill up the journal I recently made from an online art class I'm taking! (I'll share pictures sometime soon.)
3. Read 2 books.
4. Clean out my drawers and closet and donate the clothes I haven't worn this year to charity. (I'm hoping to avoid a really crazy moving day by getting prepared early. Plus I've learned that there are lots of things I've saved over the years that I simply do not need.)
5. Post Living Luesday pictures on Sarahnae{d}!

I'll let you know how I did on August 1! :) Happy July!