I love. I love, I love, I love - SO MUCH.

I love that if you stumbled across their trailer (and shed with big screen TV, apparently, hidden elsewhere on their property??) you would never think that the woman who lived there had created such a beautiful, lovely, intricate, ethereal hideaway.  Oh my goodness.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/06/23/garden/20100624-chic-slideshow-16.html

I wish I could do a teaser picture but of course it's on the NY Times website so that's never going to happen.  Just trust me, please go and look at it.  I love that it exists.  And of course...I wish I could do something like that.

So many dreams.  So little money.  :)  Someday, my friends!






Okay, so I totally posted this and then continued on my internet exploring to find this:

http://pinkshirtsandcarwrecks.bigcartel.com/products

Agh!  So cute!  Especially for all of my Twin Cities buddies, because according to this lady's "about" section, she lives in Minneapolis.  I want.  If I lived in Minneapolis, I would totally get that Mpls pennant.  Nix, I always think of you when I see things like that because you have such Minneapolis pride.  Go!

Also, I should stop surfing the nets right now because I'm at work and I actually have some work to do, but I wanted to let y'all know that I found this stuff via pictures posted on this blog:

http://printerpiemaker.blogspot.com/

who lives in my neck of the woods and who I happened to get to say hi to at the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco the weekend before Christmas.  As I skim down the rest of her latest post, called "Pretty Things" I see many more pictures I want to click on and explore but I have to get some work done right now!!!  Aaauuugghh!!  The internet is too tempting.  There are too many beautiful things on here, and in the world.

Shameless

So, I'm writing to tell all four of my lovely followers about two giveaways:

http://www.blondebargainbabe.com/2010/12/bbbs-first-giveaway-groupon.html

and

http://couturecarrie.blogspot.com/2010/12/runway-rundown-bracelet-giveaway.html

Because apparently if I blog about them, I get extra entries into the contests.  It's cool stuff, too, so I'm okay telling other people about them.

In other news, I read The House of the Spirits and I've been wanting to write about it but I don't really know what to say.  I mean...it's just one of those books.

picture courtesy of .roma's Flickr feed

It was incredible...and I feel like I need to read it at least one more time, if not two more times, to really appreciate its beauty.  It was her first book!  I can't believe that.  It's similar to Of Love and Shadows but broadens the story to include the whole family (two families, but mostly one) as opposed to just the two main lovers and one mother, as I seem to remember Of Love and Shadows doing.  Similar backdrop though, of civil unrest and political struggles, and main characters getting involved in revolutionary activities.  I don't know much about Isabel Allende except that she was the niece of Salvador Allende, so that makes me think that some of her content comes from her own family history.

Anyway, I loved it and it makes me want to know them and stay in the big house on the corner for a while and meet Clara and Nicolas and Amanda and Miguel and Alba.  Characters in two of my favorite books now are named Alba, isn't that funny?  I don't like that name.  Can anyone guess what the other book is?  :)

I will definitely be reading more Isabel Allende.  This is my third.  My first was Daughter of Fortune.  That's my least favorite so far, but not unenjoyable.  I liked it while I was reading it.  She creates very passionate female characters, and many of her characters, male or female, are completely possessed by world-changing love that takes over their whole lives.  I think that's one of my favorite things about her writing so far.  :)

I'm finally one of those people

I've never been someone who gets melancholy during the holidays.  I've always loved Christmas, no matter how stressed out I get myself over presents or parties or traveling.  This year I'm not stressed, but I am a little melancholy.  Who knew?

For the most part, I'm happy in California.  I have a good job, I enjoy my classes and about a week after I moved here I just happened to meet the love of my life.  My cat is happy and healthy, and so am I.  I feel successful, and I am slowly making friends.

That's what I miss, though - my real friends.  And my family.  Christmas is the time you're supposed to be with your loved ones.  I think maybe I'm given to fits of melancholy in general, because I always feel like I should be happier, especially when I think about all the good things in my life.  And like I said, I do like it here.  I'm happy that I moved here.  I just miss the people back in Minnesota.  It took me ten years to build the friendships I left there, and nothing here can compare to that (Yet.  Hopefully someday.). 

I also kind of miss snow.  Of course I had to move right before one of the biggest blizzarding winters in Minnesota history.  I kind of would've liked to experience that.

I hope it isn't more hard and sad than happy and exciting when I go back to visit.  It will have been almost a year after moving before I can make it back.  Well, we'll see.  However it is, it will be good.  I just wanted to say to everyone back in the frozen tundra - I miss you guys.  I hope you're all happy and healthy as well, and that you have a beautiful Christmas.  Don't forget the most important part - to love and enjoy your favorite people.  Try not to get too caught up in the holiday stress and let it become an unhappy time that you dread.  If you're stressed about getting people the right presents, just buy 23 bottles of wine and you'll be set.  You can tell them all you found it at some tiny winery that you can't even remember the name of (they do have some of those in Minnesota!), and they'll assume it's expensive instead of $5 at Trader Joe's.  :)

I love you all!  I'm going to try to create my own little Christmas that will be as wonderful as I can possibly make it, but in the meantime I'll just try to cheer myself up a bit by imagining that you're all going to come visit!

Oooh, I really want to go and buy Christmas presents here

Also, I heard on NPR this morning that in 10 years, 85% of the book trade will be in e-books.  I sincerely hope not.  That might be the first real rebellion I stage against change and modernization.

I wonder if I'm less interested in this blog

I was so excited about this blog when I first started out, but...I don't know, maybe I just didn't pick the right topic.  Maybe I'll say screw the topic, I'll just write about whatever I want.  I have an online diary already, so it seems a bit redundant to have two of these things, but this could be my more public one, where I say things I want people to know about.  We'll see.  I'm not giving up yet :)

Today, though I do have something lovely to write about: "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri.

(picture borrowed from http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk)

She's also the author of "The Namesake" (as it says on the picture of the book), which some of you might have heard of, since it was made into a movie.  And since I know some of the people who might be reading this were in the book club I was in back in MN, and we read it.

Anyway, this is on my list of what I call "soul books."  So is "The Namesake," so I think I have discovered a favorite author.  This is a collection of short stories and they still all have to do with Indian-Americans and their families, and it's just a little breathtaking.  The last few stories all have to do with the same two families/children, but she wrote it in such a way so that I didn't even realize it was about the same people until halfway through the second story.  It's fascinating.

One thing I really like about reading her books is that I have learned a lot about Bengali culture.  She opens up a culture that I didn't know much about and makes it easy to understand.  It's actually probably useful for my future counseling career, because if I ever have any Bengali clients, I'll have an idea of where they're coming from.

In case anyone's wondering what I meant by "soul books," I'll try to explain it.  They're the ones that I feel feed my soul.  They make me want to hug myself, and read every word.  I feel like I'm drinking them in more than reading them.  They speak to the stuff that's the most important to me, the most fundamental.  They make me think about how I want my life to be.  They give me the warm fuzzies :)  They make me feel calm, and make the world seem more beautiful.  I feel like they fill up my heart.

That's a lot of stuff, for just a book, isn't it?  :)  I won't even go into how incredible and transformative books are.  That would be enough for a whole separate blog :)  See you guys next time.

Book

I just remembered that one of my first ideas (or maybe it was Mark's, since he's the blog idea master) for a blog was to record all the books I read.  I used to use a little notebook I got at Barnes & Noble (I'm a sucker for pre-printed notebooks) that was called "books i read" and had little fun lists interspersed between the pages asking you for titles and authors and comments - I could list which books I want to read, books I want to write, books recommended to me by others...I loved that little notebook.
Anyway, I filled it up and then was left feeling slightly bereft, and now, many months later, I'm thinking I'll start adding books to this blog.  I really liked the idea of keeping track of everything I read, and even though now there's a big gap from this lack-of-notebook situation, I'll try not to think too hard about it.  It messes with the type-A part of my personality.
One book I recently finished was "Southern Cross" by Patricia Cornwell.


As you can tell, I borrowed that image from Amazon, where it is available for sale. 
It was good.  I liked the character of Smoke.  His sociopathy was really interesting to me, and I was curious to see what he was going to do next.  I think she wrote her Southern characters really well, and given the comment from a reviewer on the back of the book saying that "Cornwell bring...a gimlet eye for her (emphasis mine) city" maybe that's because she's from Richmond, Virginia, where the story is set.  I liked Bubba as well, just because he was so dumb and quirky.  Overall, I recommend it for an interesting crime story read.

Sarah Silverman's Message To America, On Gay Suicide

Love her. And...duh. Way to go, Sarah.

I hope this works...

Train - Hey, Soul Sister (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: The Train

 
This isn't a new love, but I did hear it this morning and it reminded me of how much I loved it a few months ago, so I thought I'd put it on here - not only because it's an easy post and I am having a really hard time finding time to post things on here.  Although!  I just realized I am ready to post about one of my planned ones!  I had to finish something in order to be able to write about it, and I just did today, so...maybe there won't be as much time between this entry and the next one. 
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this song as much as I do :)
 
Be patient with me while I'm in school - and also realize that since this blog is about "discovered" loves, I might not discover anything for decent amounts of time, and there's not much I can do about that.  Although I might have just thought of another idea as well...hmmm, apparently I just need to get on here and start writing and the ideas start flowing.  All right, peace out.
 
;)

Flowers

A couple weeks ago I was just wandering down the street after a chiropractor appointment and even though I'd been in that neighborhood many times before, I had never noticed these flowers before.  Maybe they just appeared that day!  I don't know, but for some reason I was taken with them.  They are pretty regular flowers, I think, but there's just something about them.  Let's have some pictures, no?!

Beautiful.  :)  Just in a regular neighborhood yard in Oakland.

Food

I'm eating a lovely breakfast right now and it occurred to me to write about it.  Vanilla yogurt, a slice of sesame Ezekiel bread (3 g of fiber per slice!) with peanut butter, an apricot and coffee.  I decided to take a picture even though it doesn't really need one, just because pictures make a blog entry more interesting.

I'm eating a lot more fruit since I moved here.  I'm not sure why.  I want to say it's because there are a lot more fresh fruit options here than in Minnesota, but I don't even know if that's true.  Of course in Minnesota, it's all imported.  You know what I have tried here that I had never had before?  A pluot.  I didn't even know what it was until I asked someone in a grocery store - a plum combined with an apricot.  Good!  Apparently there's just something about California that makes me eat healthier.  Or at least want to.  My three trips to In-N-Out Burger...count as a cultural experience, right?

Night before last I made individual cherry pies for the boyfriend and I.  I was a little nervous about it because I've never even made a pie before, much less little ones.  It turned out so brilliantly!  I was so excited!  So I had to take pictures.

So cute!!  I totally want to make them again.  We didn't actually mean to eat our entire respective pies, but...:)  Very hard to stop once you start.

Mmmm...I'm hungry.

It's the little things

Taking a cat for a walk is terribly amusing - as long as you start out feeling calm and relaxed.  It's definitely not an activity for a day when you're feeling harried or stressed.  Unless, of course, you are using the cat-walk (hehe) as a relaxation technique.

I know a lot of people think it's silly to put a cat on a leash, especially because many cats are allowed to wander around outside whenever they want, but the idea of letting my cat run wild makes me really nervous.  Yeah, maybe he's smart enough to find his way home again, but he could get hit by a car or...I don't know, any number of other things that I would prefer him to avoid.  Plus, walking a cat yields many sources for giggles, which anyone who has ever tried it knows.  This is a common sight:

He is just too cool for the leash, really.

On our little adventure downstairs today I got a chance to get a couple pictures of the succulent plant that's hanging out with all that honeysuckle.  I have a thing for succulents.  I don't really know the specific names for any of them, but I know what they generally look like, and I love how low-maintenance they are.  They're definitely the plant for people like me who somehow cause the slow and painful death of most plants that come into their lives.  This was my favorite picture, even though the flower part is out of focus.  I think that's actually why I like it though.

So there we have it.  Erin's attempt to amuse herself while unemployed.  :)  Today's loves: a cat on a leash and a succulent.

(If I'm wrong and that's not a succulent plant, please tell me.  I'll still love it though.)

Introduction

Hello.  My name is Erin.  I started this blog because every so often I come across something that I just totally love, and I wish I could either buy it, follow it around, create one for myself, or tell 359 people so I can share the wonderfulness.  My boyfriend has been bugging me to start a blog about every random topic he can think of, and it finally occurred to me that it might actually be a good idea.

My first post is a really simple thing - and now that I think about it, I wish I had gotten the artist's card, but I didn't.  My friend and I came across an art fair in what I think is called Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco last Saturday (the 7th) - right where Market St turns and becomes Steuart St, near the Ferry Building.  There was a pottery display that was absolutely beautiful.  I'm a sucker for pottery.  I took some pictures, and here are some of his mugs:

If anyone reading this happened to be there as well, and saw this same table, please post who artist was!  I'm waiting to get the rest of the pictures from my friend to see if maybe I got him in any of them.

I wish I could've bought all of these.  I especially love the ones with red in them.  They weren't expensive but I'm unemployed right now, so mugs are just a bit too extravagant at the moment.

 Anyway, welcome to my blog.  I don't know how often I'll be posting since it just depends on what I come across, but I hope you'll stick around.  :)