this post was rain-checked from two days ago (the actual sunday)  because i took the week off from projects.  it's good to sleep. more about that later on.

lord knows i can be a sentimental fool.  some nights, i kick back in my chair (not really), make a cup of tea, put my music up and let myself sink back into old and familiar feelings.  and if i listen to my gut, there'd be a lot more of it.  true facts: it makes for good writing, but the residuals aren't always easy to move past.

not to mention the funky dreams, which i used to have all the time.  consequently, i have to believe in some kind of synchronicity, like we're all under some great cosmic touch and blind to it most days. 

for me, the dreams provide the escape route, or the question at the root of everything current, or the segue back to an answer i needed then and received now.  they move me in a way that my waking life can't and probably shouldn't, so much grander than the daily minutiae.  

i had a dream about a friend on a tuesday and woke up on the wednesday with a powerful feeling of connection; a few hours later i got a text.  maybe this is pre or retro-cognition, or maybe there's a common wavelength... or just total chance.  i like to believe that there's more order to the universe than that, though.

we did just see interstellar, too. if you haven't seen it, don't click this or this, and designate a three hour window for yourself to watch it.  i was a total snob about it until half-way through. there was little denying it at that point. if you can get over your groaning at matthew mcconaughey's perpetual texas accent, issues with global warming, and it'll be alright alright alright.  even neil degrasse tyson's pretty okay with the ending (SPOILERS).

amid the frantic productivity of work - it's that time of the year in academia - it was wonderful to revisit places of the past. being in the mountains or in the ocean always brings me back to the earth. literally, figuratively. as kids, my siblings and i were always fishing or hiking, or maybe trudging through brush in a park or gardening. there was little else that we did for "whole family" entertainment and i am glad for that.  my parents let us play outside and in the street and in the yard for long hours.  it made for a great imagination.

things of note this week:

• we'd been living off of frozen vegetables and pantry grains for a while before last night's journey to wegmans. need a way to use up that last half cup of goat cheese?  how about orecchiette and broccoli with lemon zest?
  
• do you love badass women?  check out these alphabet posters from rad american women a-z. truth be told,  i don't know all of them and plan to rectify that. 

• i finally got my "in bloom" set from colourpop, one of the companies i mentioned in my makeup post a few months back.  it is bringing me some serious life.  the shades are beautiful and are definitely spring/summer appropriate.
  
• there was no project this week.  there will likely be no project this week, which means that i'm double doubling up.  fine with me!  til next week's *surprise* project post - be good to yourself! 

color and character edition

it's a snow day here at the apartment and i imagine that we're not alone in being unwilling to venture out into the wind.  there is something about being "stuck" in the house that makes the catching up on neglected tasks more tolerable.  see: vacuuming and dishes for us.  even coco's upping her snow day nap game.   we love popie so much. head over heels in love with everything she does, including poop on her mat in the house when it's too cold to go out.

as promised, i have swatch photos to enhance last week's makeup post. this includes all of the new colourpop, pacifica, and nyx lip products i've got. 

the pretty artsy shot with the light just right, my tea lights and the chakra pyramids.

from left to right (top row), leather, dalia, lbb, bichette, i <3 this, clique, yasmin, fancy, and lumiere - all are from colourpop and all but fancy (the pink/peach shade) are matte.  my favorites are lbb, clique, and fancy.

the two in the bottom row are the nyx intense butterglosses that i have, which i'm in love with.  the first is spice cake and the second is toasted marshmallow.  these will be getting a lot of wear for me since they're not drying in the least.

the strange irony with the lower half of my arm is that most of these colors look very similar, and they really are.

bottom three are nyx soft matte lip cremes in copenhagen, morocco (which is actually val's) and milan. if you lips have not been exfoliated and aren't moist, the lip creme may look a bit rough.  aside from solid pigmentation, you'll enjoy the baked-good smell that these have.

middle three are the nyx high voltage lipsticks in wine and dine, free spirit, and pink lady. out of the bunch the first two impressed me most.  pink lady is way too light and patchy on my lips.  i didn't even swatch playdate (a light lavendar color) because it grayed me out immensely.  super fun for halloween or theme parties, but not for my everyday wear.

top three are the pacifica devocean lipsticks in rebel sol (shimmery light coral) and firebird (shimmery orange red) and the too faced melted lipstick in velvet.  the pacifica colors are all vegan and mineral-based, so these will need definite building.  the melted velvet is super rich and glossy, but you don't need super primed lips to wear this well.

i guess the important thing to remember when choosing lipsticks is that your arm is usually not the same shade as you lips and face, especially if you use sunscreen appropriately.  after enough swatches you'll figure out which color families you like (pinks/reds/corals/berries/browns or taupes) and which look good on you because of your undertones, as well.  this might lead to getting a few dupes intentionally or not.  bottom line: wear whatever you want, but you may notice that certain colors are more flattering on you than others.

best for...

budget:  nyx and colourpop

color choice and range of finishes:  colourpop, followed by nyx

natural/vegan makeup: pacifica

high end splurge:  too faced

onto the other bits.

as i prep - err, maybe that's too strong a word - for rescheduled novel-writing week in the spring, i'm checking this site for ideas.  now that my desktop command center is set up (thanks, babe and steve!)  i can settle into late nights of music and musing with more regularity. that's usually when i find the most inspiration. 

a person's favorite quote tells you a lot about them and what they value, or so i think.  so i've saved a lot quotes in hopes that i'll find one that speaks to my characters. my favorite quote is either directly from hemingway or paraphrased, though i'm not the biggest fan of his world view otherwise.  "courage is grace under pressure."  when things were really, really tough for me, i found myself saying this to myself, even printed the words out and hung the quote over my desk in college.  i like to think i'm pretty courageous.

i've got a sense of one of my characters.  catherine bakes for stress relief. i feel like making a pretty pie crust is a skillset that she's got in her arsenal.

another idea i've got, though it might be too tropey, is to pull concepts from mythology and philosophy and pack them into a character's arc. 

when it comes to showing and not telling how a character's feeling, i struggle a bit.  years of writing explanatory essays will do that to you.  i'll be leaning on this cheatsheet and editing like a mofo.

ultimately, whether or not i let the road blocks and self-doubt steer me into "crushed" or "smashed" territory has yet to be seen, but this infographic on the struggle to get anything done is pretty spot-on.

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enjoy the week <3

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food & flight edition

happy lazy sunday!   it's already a slow one for juan and me since there is no better way to handle the aftermath of a flash stomach bug. here's to tea and rice and naps and r.e.m.'s reveal album on youtube. 

all that aside, i'm super excited to roll out one of the banners that val made me for these posts.  my sister is talented, for sure.

this week i'm feeling considerable wanderlust.  kind of ready to jump on a plane and go somewhere juan and i haven't explored and see new places and spaces. we've been talking international trips for a long time and haven't gone on any since we've been together: a whole four and a half years.  i think we'll stick to another domestic trip for now since we're not sure how much vacation time juan'll have in the summer time. (this would be a good thing, actually, but maybe news soon).

so seattle it is!  there are so many hip restaurants to stuff our faces at.  that's one important criterion for all of our destinations.  i've already started revisiting travel blogs and creating itineraries.  juan is personally excited for beerfest in july if we can swing the trip then.  

even though we love walking through up and coming - or, in this case, "arrived" - neighborhoods, i'm thinking that we need some time in the great outdoors so olympic national park is on the to-do list.  i'd like to hike through part of the hoh national rainforest and saunter along the coast for a while.

i am a little bit sad that the san juan islands are too far removed from seattle to merit a visit this trip.  they are definitely on my bucket list for the future.

though i'm totally stoked for planning the trip, more than travel, i'm ready for spring.  bring on the green and the flowers and wardrobe changes. it's my favorite season and i can't wait to get some fresh produce that isn't a root vegetable or citrus. 

oh, but i love pears. perfect for a healthy snack as there's so much fiber and good sugar.  at the same time, i've got my eye on you, pomegranate pear salsa and upside-down gingerbread and pear cake. 

as a vegetarian, shameless recipe collector and general "foodie", i can never get enough ideas for meals, especially with consideration of our grocery budget. oh my veggies offers afforable weekly meal plans and "remake" recipes of popular dishes with veg-heads in mind.  the site is an awesome resource if you're veg or if you just want to work a more plant-based diet into your lifestyle.

this week i also purchased the massive, formidable textbook for the culinary institute of america. if you follow me on instagram, you may already know that i am hella stoked.   in addition to this book, i'm scoping out the baking and pastry and garde manger textbooks for future purchases when i'm not trying to pay off a credit card.  what can i say?  i like to have all of my cookbook bases covered.

sitting beside the tissue box.  you know, for reference.

love watching mo rocca on my grandmother's ravioli as much as we do? check out grandmas making food from the hometowns and countries.  the complete list of grandmas can be found here.

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that's all for now, folks. hope you all have a happy, happy week!

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the sunday ish: a little bit of everything

happy super bowl sunday!

we're off to the biff's house today for a game-day party and her housewarming shindig.  should be a great time! the broface, reemy and i will be making deviled eggs a la my housewarming.  pat and i will most likely be rooting for the pats to lose - you know, cause they're from new england and we had a few too many samples of beer at the beer expo yesterday. 

as for today's unscheduled post, i've been mulling over ideas for expanding the content of ye olde blog. between christa's awesome linkspiration posts and the list posts from so many of the blogs that i subscribe to - (joy the baker's "let it be" posts -, molly yeh's everything in one place recipe/links-list, and design crush's happy weekend posts) - i started to want a space to share all of the really cool stuff i come across.  a considerable chunk of my day is spend at a computer desk so there is a lot - a lot - of info absorbed.  

so this is going to be the new thing: the sunday ish.   

val's in the process of making an awesome little banner for these posts and you'll see it as soon as it's ready to display.  excite!

since i'm project-ing this week, i'm sharing another DIY that might get thrown into the mix eventually. a few years ago val and i made some DIY mugs that were decorated with sharpies and baked in the oven to preserve the ink.  the designs were really awesome since we were able to use a lot different colors.  unfortunately, we found that the sharpie didn't really... bake on.  pretty disappointing.  my mug is now a glorified pencil holder in my office since i was afraid of seeing the handiwork shmeared off.  these mugs look like they've got lasting power.

bloggy, creative types: in need of some stock photos?   i found a ton of great, broody photos for journal prompts and background wallspapers alike.  the photos peppered around this post were all found at unsplash!   no need for permission and use them anywhere and in anyway, but it's always nice to give credit if you can. 

i finally used my etsy gift card from juan!  even though i spent the full amount on pairs of earrings, river luna's archival ink prints are gorgeous - so gorgeous that i can't decide on even a pair of prints for the apartment's still-blank walls.  like, i love the peonies and the fawn and the feathers and stones and etc., etc.

and over at unitedthread i'm totally, woefully unsure of which flora and fauna combo i love best.  juan and i love too many prints to make any clear decision this paycheck cycle.

speaking of adorable things: block printed animal pillows.  can i have them all? 

so juan and i went to the beer expo with pat and a few friends. i was hoping that the crabbie's booth would be there, but no luck.  one of our *new* drinks of choice is the moscow mule.  holy heck, super delicious!  you need to get behind the idea of ginger beer first.

and on the us front, we're steering and more towards having a fantastic elopement.  practically speaking, weddings are freaking expensive and we've seen (and heard from) a lot of friends who wished they had had a more stress-free day to enjoy with loved ones and without the time crunch and stress from dropping a lot of cash.

that's all for now. i'll be posting again tomorrow or tuesday to sum up creative-gift week. enjoy the game if you're watching and happy sunday!