24 before 25, part two

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Hi there!  I hope your week is going just swimmingly.  Today I am sharing the rest of my 24 Before 25 list!  If you missed the first half of the list, you can find it here.

13. Successfully grow herbs in my apartment.  I have tried this a few times, and it usually goes pretty well because I have a perfect spot for growing things.  The top of my refrigerator is out of the reach of nosy cats, and it gets plenty of sunlight.  However, the last time I was growing a rosemary plant there, I had unknowingly bought it from a garden store with a bug issue in their soil, and it contaminated all of my potted plants.  Ew.  This time, I am going to try water-rooting some basil, rosemary, lavender, and mint, then planting them in potting soil myself to avoid any unfortunate six-legged hangers-on.  

14. Spin new-to-me fibers!  I would like to branch out and try spinning some fibers that I have never spun before, like Cormo, Rambouillet, and Targhee.  I will be attending two fiber festivals in the next few months—those should be a great opportunity to start on this goal!

15. Keep flowers in my apartment more often.  Flowers sometimes seem like a frivolous purchase, but they make me so happy every time I see them in a pitcher on my kitchen table, and that has to be worth something.

16. Be less self-critical.  Like most people, I think, I sometimes find myself mentally beating myself up for something that really isn’t a big deal.  It isn’t a productive or helpful behavior, and I would never hold anyone else to the standards that I hold myself to, so I am trying to curb that kind of negative self-talk.

17. Sew more of my own clothing.  This blog is called Julie Rose Sews, for crying out loud.  I haven’t done a ton of sewing for myself since I graduated from FIT two years ago, but I have a lovely fabric stash and I work in the New York City garment district.  I’m certainly not lacking in materials—I just have to make the time.

18. Knit more from my Ravelry queue instead of looking for new patterns.  I really like everything in my queue, so it should be the first place I look when I am trying to decide what to do with a skein of yarn.  I’d like to knit through at least 10 patterns from my queue before I turn 25. 

19. Speaking of which, I would like to knit at least 15 hexipuffs a month for my Beekeeper’s Quilt so that I have some hope of finishing it soon!  This shouldn’t be too hard—I can knit about 1.5 hexipuffs a day on my commute to and from the city.  I just have to resist the temptation to put a shiny new project into my bag instead!

20. Spin at least 4 oz. a month.  Originally I had wanted to spin 8 oz. a month, but I don’t think that’s realistic given that I like to spin teeny tiny yarn.  If I spin 4 oz. a month, I will have spun through my almost my entire fiber stash by my next birthday!   Aaaaaah!  Must supplement the stash!

21. Give only handmade or vintage gifts for Christmas, whether made by me or by someone else.  I usually make most of my gifts, but this year I would like to fill in the gaps with gifts purchased on Etsy or from craft fairs or flea markets.

22. Get back to learning French before I forget all of the French that I learned in college.  I really enjoyed learning French, but it kind of fell off my radar after graduation.  According to my professor, I picked it up very quickly and easily, and I still have all of my French books. 

23. Knit/spin through my yarn/fiber stash so that nothing sits in my yarn cabinet longer than a year and a half.  I feel guilty about accumulating new yarn and fiber when I have beautiful things just waiting at home, and I do truly love everything that I already have.  My lovely yarn and fiber shouldn’t be neglected just because it’s not shiny and new.  

24.Spend more time with friends. As an introverted person living in an extraverted world, it can be hard for me to give up some of my precious alone time to go spend time with other people.  Whenever I do rally myself to go hang out with friends, I am always so glad that I did.  I am happy with being an introvert, but everyone needs to push a bit outside their comfort zone sometimes. 

Well, there you have it!  I have ten months and nine days to accomplish these goals.  Do you have any goals to achieve before your next birthday?  I would love to hear about them!

♥

24 before 25

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Hi and happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend and that you're starting the week feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.  Today I'd like to share the first half of my '24 before 25' list-- a list of 24 things I would like to do before my 25th birthday!  I had originally planned to do the entire list in one post, but it would be way too long.  The second half should be posted by the end of the week. Some of these are goals with a tangible outcome, and others are more internal.  My 24th birthday was back in June, so I have about ten months to accomplish whatever I can from this list.

1. Make a quilt.  I love quilts, I think they are so cozy and comforting.  I also love vintage fabric and I have lots of little scraps that are too small to make clothing or even an accessory out of, but even the smallest scraps should have enough for at least a few quilt squares.  I'm supplementing my vintage scraps with some new fabrics in sweet, charming prints, too.

2. Get back to a regular exercise schedule.  Here is a not-so-secret secret:  I hate exercising!  I hate it!  I hate putting on ugly workout clothes, I hate being sweaty, I hate stopping whatever fun thing I'm doing to go exercise-- there are very few aspects I like.  But I feel much, much better about my health and about life in general when I'm working out (ha-- that makes it sound like I'm very hardcore about it.  Not the case.) on a regular basis.  I'm hoping to get back to doing my cheesy, 80's-tastic DVD workout twice a week and doing yoga (also from DVDs, but somehow much less cheesy due to the lack of neon spandex) three times a week.  

3. Make a wonderful Christmas present for my wonderful boyfriend.  This one is already planned out!  And he knows it's planned out!  Bwahahaha. I inherited my grandmother's affinity for not only plotting what to get or make someone for Christmas absurdly far in advance, but then alerting the recipient so that they have months and months to wonder what it will be.  

4. Continue to make my apartment into a cozy home, particularly by hanging pictures.  I have plaster walls, so I have to use the nailhead version of Command Strips to hand pictures in my hallway, where I am planning to have a gallery wall, and in my kitchen.  I am lucky enough to have picture rail molding in my bedroom and my living room, so the only tools needed for hanging anything on those walls are picture rail hooks and picture hanging wire.  

5. Knit another sweater for myself!  I never shared my finished Twigs and Willows cardigan on the blog because I just wasn't happy with how it turned out, and consequently, I never wear it.  With another year of knitting experience and a lot more knowledge, I would like to knit another sweater and fit it to my own body instead of strictly following a pattern.  I bought the yarn to knit Ink last year at Rhinebeck, and I'm wondering whether it would be too crazy to try to knit it before Rhinebeck this year, which is October 19th and 20th.  Actually, I can answer that question right now:  yes, it would be crazy, because I am currently working on a huge secret knitting project that will probably take another month to finish.  But I might still try.

6. Try more recipes from my collection of cookbooks.  I love cookbooks and I have a nice little collection of them, but I tend to get stuck in a rut of the same dozen or so recipes.  

7. Continue bullet journaling every day.  Ryder Carroll, who invented the Bullet Journal technique, describes it as "the difference between being busy and being productive," and I've definitely found that to be true.  Besides, it's just so satisfying to check off the task boxes.

8. Do more art journaling. My art journal is a place where I can express myself, gather inspiration, work through challenges, and exercise my creativity, and I really enjoy filling it with thoughts and images.  I just haven't been making time for it lately and I miss it.

9. Actually craft and cook from my 'things to make' and 'yummy' boards on Pinterest.  If I pinned it, I must have thought it would be fun or cute or tasty, so why not give it a try?

10.Blog on a regular basis.  I love to read blogs, and I love to share my inspiration and creative endeavors and life experiences with all of you.  It's one of those things that I just have to make the time to do, because I am much happier when I am blogging on a regular basis.  If I managed to blog every day when I was in school at the Fashion Institute of Technology and had virtually no free time at all, I can certainly make a go of it now when I'm working regular hours and not spending my weekends doing homework!

11. Visit the wildlife preserve near my apartment more often.  It's so inspiring to be in a quiet, natural place, especially since I go into Manhattan every weekday for work.  

12. Learn to acknowledge my own needs.  I have always been a nurturing person, and sometimes I put the needs of others before my own a little too readily and often (fellow Cancerians, I know you understand me on this one!).  I can't take care of anyone else if I'm not taking care of myself.  This certainly doesn't mean I'm planning on becoming a self-important egomaniac, of course (ick!),  but I would like to get to find a better balance.

Do you have any goals that you're working on achieving before your next birthday?  Or any time, really!  I'd love to hear about them.  I can't wait to share the rest of my list with you!

♥

daffodils and a new home

Hi!

I hope you're all doing well-- it's been a little while since I've posted.  But more about that later.

First, I'd like to share a few photos of one of my very favorite flowers-- the daffodil!

In what felt like only a few days, the weather here has gone from chilly and gray to sunny, warm, and beautiful!  The daffodils are in full bloom.  Some are big and showy...

...and some are teeny-tiny!

     Ok, so about the radio silence coming from my blog lately-- I've spent the last few weeks travelling back and forth to New York interviewing, and I'm going to be starting a lovely new job in just a few weeks!  Yay!  And since I'm going to be working in the city, I need to live a bit closer.  I had looked at some apartments a few weeks ago, just to get a feel for what exactly I wanted.  Of course, there was one apartment that I absolutely fell in love with.  Top floor, amazing views, cute neighborhood, 

cat-friendly, bright and sunny, reasonable commute-- everything I would have included if I was to describe my ideal apartment.  I was happy to see that my dream apartment does actually exist, but I was sure that it would be gone by the time I was ready to move.  I kept checking online to see if the listing disappeared, but somehow it stayed available.  When I was hired and started looking for a new home, I was sure the apartment would be gone, and that the online listing just hadn't been updated yet, but I called the real estate agent who had shown it to me, just to check.

It was not gone.

I'm moving in next week! 

YAY!

I'll share some photos of my new nest over the next few days, but posting will probably remain erratic until I'm settled into my apartment.

I hope wonderful, exciting things are happening in your life, too!

♥

cute as a button

I got a tattoo today!

     For the past few years, I've really wanted a tattoo of a button, and I figured that with graduation coming up, now was the time to actually do it.  It's tiny, just the size of a penny, and on the outside of my left ankle just behind the ankle bone.  I absolutely love it.  The color is perfect and the shading is beautiful.  It was done by Wendi-- when I saw her portfolio I knew I wanted to work with her because her illustrations and tattoos are both so pretty and charming.  And she is so sweet, she made me feel totally comfortable even though I'd never so much as set foot in a tattoo studio before my consultation last week.

     I was worried about getting a tattoo because I am a notorious chicken when it comes to needles-- shots, getting blood drawn, anesthesia, I get completely terrified.  But this wasn't bad at all-- the feeling of vibration was much stronger than the pain.  And I knew going into it that it would be worth any pain, because not only did I get my button to commemorate graduating from school, but also in remembrance of my dad.  I sketched out a button with four holes to represent the four members of my immediate family (my parents and my brother, Zach), and with a raised edge to signify the sort of-- bubble the four of us traveled in when we were together, no matter where we were.  The music playing while I was getting the tattoo done was pretty great, too.  "The Weight," by The Band, "Like a Rolling Stone," by Bob Dylan, and "Brown-Eyed Girl," by Van Morrison, all played in a row-- three songs that my dad always sang and played on his guitar in our living room and at family gatherings.  It was a wonderful final touch on something that already meant a lot to me.

     And then it was done!  I'm so excited that my little green button will be there every time I look at my ankle for the rest of my life.  How crazy is that!  Now all that's left to do is study French in preparation for tomorrow morning, my last final...ever.  Yay!

I hope it's as sunny and lovely wherever you're reading this as it is here!

♥

built to last

        “…and don’t forget to bring your juke-box money!”

          The stereo blasts as I make my way through the crowd of dancing legs and hips at my eye level, gathered in the small living room of my house.  Between the music and the shouting and laughing of my family, the volume of the room is almost overwhelming.  I manage to single out one voice, singing along raucously, and battle my way to a pair of cropped black pants and tall wedge high heels.  I tug on the sleeve—my Aunt Fern looks down at me, into my chubby little face with big brown eyes and rosy cheeks.  “Heeeeeeeeey!” she shouts, as though she hasn’t seen me in months, even though we sat together for dinner earlier.  She’s wearing big dark sunglasses, her long, long white-blonde hair in a bun on top of her head, and the sleeve I’m tugging is covered in gold sequins, glimmering in the light from the lone lamp in our living room.  It’s our annual Halloween party, and I’m dressed as a seven-year-old Wednesday Addams.  The gray wool dress is buttoned up to my neck making me itchy, and in my free hand I’m clutching a headless Barbie doll—homage to Wednesday’s decapitated companion.  Aunt Fern swings my free hand and pulls me into the thick of the dancing.  Though I can’t see their faces, I know everyone—my Aunt Annie’s infectious, raucous laugh, seeming to explode from her petite frame, and my dad’s friend Pete, who has a baby doll strapped to a big orange square of foam on his head and a wooden cross in his hand (“I’m the holy Baby Cheez-Its!”).  I hug Aunt Fern around her waist, then scoot back out of the crowd.  Too close for me.  I run out onto the front porch, where my dad and my brother and my Aunt Nan are laughing.  Aunt Nan brings a rubber mask for my dad every year—this Halloween, it’s a creepy King Kong mask, which my dad is wearing with a button-down shirt and a pair of the slacks he wears when he substitute-teaches.  “Daddy!”  I demand, hurling myself into him.  He picks me up and sits me on the porch railing, but first he takes off the scary mask.  He knows I don’t like them.

          “Having fun, Jules?” he asks me, grinning.  His hair is a little wild, the brown and silver strands mussed further by taking off the mask.  I beam back and nod and keep my hand in his, feeling safe in that little haven even as our house was full of singing and stomping and shouting.  “Daddy, will you sing the song later?”  I don’t have to specify which song—at family gatherings, he always sings me “My Girl” by The Temptations.

          “Of course, as soon as we start playing,” he replies, and I feel like the most special girl in the world.  Who else’s dad would get a bunch of loud and rowdy grown-ups to play a special song just for her?  Aunt Nan laughs at something my brother says—the Romano family laugh, the staccato ‘ha-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!” that my dad shares with his three sisters and his brother, and presumably his late brother, too, although my only strong memory of him is his sing-song calling of “Juuuuuulie, Julie, Julie!”   The air is a little chilly, and I slide down off the railing.  “I’m gonna go find Mommy!”  I push through the living room full of adults, now singing along with The Grateful Dead’s ‘Built To Last.’  All these trials soon will soon be passed…Look for something built to last…

         My dad calls after me.

“Love you, Jules!”

♥

this is an excerpt from my term project for my memoir class, a series of vignettes from my childhood.
more info can be found here, as well as another excerpt.

rainy day woman

Yesterday I went for a walk in the rainy weather.

the texture of this tree bark is so cool.

As much as I love New York on beautiful sunny days, it's just as lovely in the rain.

see the world

There's a drawer in my grandmother's house full of old photos.  I spent a lot of time this winter break looking at them.  Aren't these beach photos beautiful?  My grandmother took them in Cape Cod, at Nauset Beach, in 1987.

When I'm feeling down or confused, my first instinct is to be near a body of water.  There's something so calming about listening to waves and feeling the little kisses of sea-spray on my cheeks.  It clears my mind and puts things in perspective.  The weather is moody today and so am I... I'm going to put on my rain boots and head down to the park by the river to clear my head.

'See the World,' by Gomez, is one of my favorite songs.  The lyrics are simple and honest and they make sense to me.

Ok.  Time to go for a walk.
The world is puddle-wonderful.

♥

new year ♥

Happy New Year!

Ashley, from You're the Charlie Browniest, wrote a really great New Years post of a letter written to the version of herself that existed one year ago.  I thought that was a great way to look back over the year, so I've written my own letter.

Dear Julie of December 31st, 2010,

     You are so happy at this moment-- hold onto that feeling.  Hold onto it tightly.  Because you will need to draw on that reserve of happiness so much for the next year... but you will make it through.

     There's a man next to you right now, and you are absolutely convinced you're going to be spending the rest of your life with him.  You'll actually only be together for a few more weeks.  But even though you're heartbroken and furious at first, you don't stay bitter for very long.  You've learned how happy and alive you can be, and how deeply you can love.

     April... in April, you lose another love.  I wish I could tell you that you get over it quickly and painlessly.  But it does get easier, and eventually you're able to remember the quietly joyful moments and smile instead of cry.

     When your dad gets sick, spend as much time with him as you possibly can.  Losing him is the worst thing that you've ever experienced and you won't understand how the world could possibly go on without him.

     That still hasn't gone away.  Hang in there, Julibee Roo.

     The year does have some good points, though.  You do very well in school, and you grow up more this year than in any other period of your life.  You learn that having an amazing best friend is an invaluable gift.  You learn to deal with overwhelming grief by channeling it into your art, even if you can't put it into words.  You learn that, as one friend puts it, "there's a tiger hiding under all those ruffles and bows."  You're a strong girl.  Keep trying to find a balance between that strength and letting yourself be soft and vulnerable.

Be gentle with yourself, busy bee.

Love, Julie of December 31st, 2011

start the new year with a giveaway!  click here to enter to win goodies from my etsy shop.

♥

blue christmas

It's Christmas Eve morning... Every year up until now, I've always gone with my dad and my brother to a diner in town for soup and rice pudding.  Each table has its own little jukebox, with Christmas music available no matter what time of year it is, and we always made sure to bring quarters so that we could listen to Winter Wonderland, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, and Blue Christmas.  We'd take a stroll in the park, too-- when we were little, this was so my mom could have some time to wrap Christmas presents without us knowing about it.  I don't know what we thought she was doing-- we always had to wait in the car while my dad checked if we could come in yet.  But he would walk around the park, reciting the first few lines of "The Village Smithee," a poem he had to write a hundred times as a punishment in school.  If he could find a bench to stand on while he was reciting it, he was even more pleased.  Zach and I would tug on his arms-- "C'mon, Dad!  Stop it!  We're cold, let's get in the car!"  But Dad would always insist we walk around the park just one more time.  I would give anything to be able to take just one more walk around the park.

We're having a blue Christmas without you, Dad.  Love and miss you so much.

♥

random end-of-semester awesomeness.

Today was my first official day of having finished seventh semester.  YAY!  Now I have to figure out how to get back into my usual routine of blogging every day.  I'm excited to get back, I've missed you guys (assuming this is being read by anyone.).  But I have so, so many projects to share now.  So what sounds good-- one every day?  One every few days?  Let me know in the comments!

The end of the semester had some fun surprises.  You know how I'd mentioned that I had some art history left to do?  I finished my essay and discussion posts, and then I logged on to take the test (I took the class online) and found this charming little message:

(click on the  photo to make it bigger, if you can't read it)

How cool is that?  I love it when professors give nice little surprises like that.

Let's see, what else... Anthropologie had a pretty amazing sale, and I found one of my all-time favorite pieces at a ridiculous discount:

 ...the Mushroom Picking Chemise!  Oh, I love it so much.  It's so cute and floaty and comfortable.  I also picked up the Braided Toggle Sweatercoat, which is seriously the coziest sweater I've ever put on.

As an hourglass-shaped girl, I have a hard time finding thick sweaters that don't make me look...square, so this A-line cardigan is just right.  It'll probably go on sale, and then I'll feel foolish, but I've already worn it enough to make it worth the (kind of ridiculous) cost.  I'm considering it my end-of-semester treat to myself.  Oh!  And I had the chance to meet the lovely Sian from The British Anthropologi(e)st.  She's so sweet, and it was fun to discuss Anthropologie with someone equally obsessed.  So that was really fun.

Other awesome end of semester stuff:

• Two of my residents made me an adorable jar of green and silver origami wish stars for Christmas, topped with a massive candy cane.


• Another of my residents gave me lovely and delicious chocolate truffle bars.  I'm such a spoiled RA!


• I have time to get back to yoga!  And my room is finally clean now, so I have a space for it, too.  Hurrah!

And I believe we have come to the end of this rather disorganized blog post.  Let me know in the comments what you think as far as how often you'd like to see projects! Oh, and there will be big doings in the etsy shop over the next few days.  Think...paper goods.

I hope everyone's had a lovely and relaxing Monday!

♥

 

fill-in-the-blank friday!

Hiiii, hi hi hi!  I have emerged from the fabric-strewn cave that is my room with my projects finished and the semester complete!  Ok, well, I still have some Art History work to do, but that's no big deal.  I'll be posting photos of various projects soon, but in the mean time, here are this week's blanks!

via the little things we do

1.   My most favorite "little thing" is waking up  without an alarm.  It's so jarring to be woken up by a sudden noise, even if it's just the tinkly little ringtone I set as my alarm on my phone.   But waking up slowly is awesome, especially if it's nice out and sunlight is filtering into my room.

2.   I'd give anything to bring my dad back.  Obviously.  Short of that, though, I'd do anything to be able to make my mom's life easier, especially at the moment.

3.  I can't believe that I'm going into my last semester of college!  How crazy is that?  It cracks me up that I've pretty much had the same group of friends the entire time I've been here, too.  I knew I wanted to be friends with Brittany when she used "Trekkies" as her theme for a project based on a subculture of our choice.  She was friends with Andrea and Josh.  Kathie and I met in our first semester classes, too-- her Ninja Turtle halloween costume was awesome.  Jes and I only started hanging out a lot this semester, but it feels like it's been much longer.  I guess we all just kind of found the people we liked early on and stuck with them!  And I'm so glad.  Being a fashion design major at FIT is a pretty intense experience, but having a great group of friends makes it much more bearable.  ♥

4. The one thing I'd like to achieve today is finishing my art history reading and at least a few discussion posts.  My brain has already gone into vacation mode, eeeeek!  Oh, and cleaning my Very Scary Room.  The most dangerous offender of messiness at the moment is a piece of tulle that has been laying next to my door for something like three days now.  I don't know why I keep refusing to pick it up.  Since it's tulle, it's almost impossible to see, especially in the dark (y'know, like most things are when it's dark), and I almost slip and break my neck every single time I leave my room.  But no longer!  My room will be cleaned right up!  Starting now.     ....Ok, I went and picked up the tulle.  My neck will survive another day.

5.  The last thing I want to do today is ...my art history work.  I'm hoping having a nice clean room will help me focus.  It's probably mostly a procrastination technique rather than an actual study strategy, but whatever, fine by me.

6.  If I were writing my own blank today, it would say "What was the last thing you bought that makes you really happy?"  Mostly because I just want an excuse to blog about the two things I bought today that I love so, so, SO much.

7.  My favorite candle scent is:  Y'know, I'm not actually that into candles.  I love my little battery operated ones, but since most of my work deals with highly flammable stuff, paper and fabric, actual flaming candles make me a little concerned.  I do like when I can have one safely in the bottom of a mason jar, though, I like the pretty flickering light.  Scent... hmmmm.  We had this enormous blueberry-scented candle growing up that we only used when the power went out, and it smelled SO BAD.  Just completely artificial and nothing like actual blueberries.  I wonder if there are milk-scented candles, I generally like milk-scented things.  Cucumber-melon is nice, too... a friend I had growing up had cucumber-melon scented candles on her porch, and thinking of them made me remember that so clearly, even though we haven't spoken in something like five years and I haven't been to her house in at least 7 years.  Isn't it interesting how remembering a smell can bring back so much?

I hope finals are going well for those of you who have them!

♥

 

fill-in-the-blank friday ♥

via the little things we do

1.   The holiday season is one of my favorite times of year.  I love all the twinkly lights, and the carols, and candy canes, and making presents for all my favorite people.

2.   Snow makes me excited and happy and cozy.  I like going out in the snow, getting cold, and then coming in and getting warm!

3.  The best comfort food to eat when it's cold out is soup and tea!  Or dried pears.  That's how I spent a lot of happy hours when I was younger, sitting on the love-seat at home and looking out at the snow and snacking on dried pears.

4. Winter is the best time for woolly socks.  I love them.  I have to get my winter boots re-soled because I walk everywhere, but it makes me so happy to put on woolly socks and boots and a scarf and a winter coat.  But even when I'm not going outside, I love wearing woolly socks.  In fact, I am wearing moss-green ones right now.

5.  I can hardly wait for  winter break, so I can go home and be with my mom and my brother and my grandmother.  I got spoiled by Thanksgiving break, when I got to be with my family all the time.

6.  When it comes to holiday gifts I prefer to make gifts for people.  I love making presents!

7.  If I were to rate my excitement about the holiday season on a scale from 1-10, I would say I am at about a 6 or 7?  I love the holiday season, but it's going to be a rough one this year since it's the first one without my dad.  I really hate that.  While I'm at school, it's easy to pretend everything is normal at home, and I hate that it actually isn't.  But it'll be good to be with my family.

♥

hugo ♥

This has not been a great year for me.

It started out with two heart-shattering break-ups-- the really, really bad kind, where all you can do for a week or two afterward is cry and get sick.  One was with someone who I genuinely thought was the love of my life. The other was with my exact opposite. I was his anima, he was my animus.

The summer culminated with the sudden and devastating loss of my dad.

I'm emotionally exhausted.

Life doesn't feel magical anymore.

Tonight I saw Hugo with my mom.

It's such a beautiful movie, visually and thematically.  It felt so poetic.

It was reminiscent of Amélie, especially in the color story and the mix of reality and fantasy.

It made me feel more alive than I have in months.  I plan on seeing it at least two or three more times.

Have you seen Hugo?  What did you think of it?

♥

also, the Cyber Monday sale has started at Julie Rose Sews on Etsy!  enter the coupon code 'CyberMonday' for 15% off any order.

♥

giving thanks

"Today I give thanks for beef franks, Tom Hanks, and miserable old cranks."
--my Dad

Here are just a few of the things I'm thankful for.

1. My wonderful mother.

2. My hilarious and sweet brother.

3. Marissa, the best best friend a girl could ask for.

...and the fact that she tolerates my posting this photo of her because it's my favorite.

3. My beautiful, talented cousin Kaleigh-- we had an impromptu slumber part at her dorm on Friday and it was fantastically fun.  She's empathetic and sweet and smart and funny and I'm so happy that she's going to school in the city, too.

4. My job.  Being an RA has been such a great experience and I'm so lucky to work with such a great group of people.

5. Ok, so a Five Guys recently opened near my school.  Which would be exciting in and of itself, but they have a touch-screen soda machine where you can choose your soda and then add flavorings to it, which means I can create my long-desired soda that was never put into production: caffeine-free diet vanilla coke.  It is like magic.  Or a soda fountain.  But mostly magic.

6.  All of the incredible people who have been in my life, past and present.  Every relationship is a learning experience and I've been lucky enough to know people who have taught me so much about the world, about life, about love, and about myself.

♥

Happy Thanksgiving!

fill-in-the-blank friday ♥

via the little things we do

1.   The most selfless thing I've ever done was:  Hmm... I think I'm going to leave this one blank, I think it kind of defeats the purpose of being selfless if you go bragging about it.

2.   When it comes to working out I dread going to the fitness center, but I'm always glad once I'm actually there, and it makes me very energetic afterward.  It's especially fun if there's something good on the little TV attached to the ellipticals-- my favorites are Ace of Cakes (so that I'm running toward cake for 40 minutes, it is by far the most effective way to get me to go faster... y'know, like the carrot that gets dangled in front of a horse to make it go), 1970s Family Fued episodes, and anything on SyFy.  And as for yoga, I haven't had time lately, but I'm making myself find time because it makes me so much more relaxed.  I feel old and out of alignment after not doing it for a few weeks.

3.  A woman should always: keep in mind that she deserves happiness and to be treated well.  A bad boyfriend/girlfriend is not better than no boyfriend/girlfriend at all.

4. I wish I could learn by osmosis and then I'd sleep with my French and Art History books under my pillow.

5.  A best friend is someone who is there for you no matter what.  When Marissa and I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie, it got to the scene where all the knights are coming to life to protect the castle, and Harry gets to see his parents, and I just lost it.  It was only a few weeks after I lost my dad.  Marissa held my head into her shoulder and let me cry until I was out of tears.  I can't wait to see her in a few weeks, yaaaay!

6.  I can't get enough of: these rainy, misty New York days.  I'm generally much more into sunshine, but there's something so cozy about being in my room or at 'Snice, tea in hand, doing homework and listening to the sound of cars swooshing through puddles.

7.  This weekend I am doing lots of homework, and drinking lots of tea.

♥

from the weekend

Hi lovelies!  As I mentioned, my wonderful mom came to the city for a long weekend.  It was so much fun!  We met up with my super-fantastically-awesome cousin Kaleigh for some of our wandering around on Friday...

...and here are a few of the things we encountered.

adorable sign for a store that I always mean to go in but somehow never d0... note to self: go into store when next in the West Village.

view from the High Line

hummus, falafel, and pitas from Hummus Place- my mom and I both opted for the hummus with mushrooms.  which is incredibly delicious.

angry robot building-topper guy!  grrrr!

pretty color-arranged music books at the Julliard bookstore

It was so great to have some family time.  I can't wait to see my mom and Kaleigh again.  Yay!

♥

things I hate.

Ok, maybe hate is a bit strong.  But I mostly post about things I like (flowers, yarn, art, etc.), so here are some things I really really really don't like.

• squeaky chairs.  And I feel like I choose them inordinately often.


• crowds.


• onions


• that pokey part when you go too long without sharpening your eyeliner properly.


• when people can't discuss their religious or philosophical views at all without getting really defensive about it.  I asked, 'why do you believe _______', not 'why do you believe _______ because boy is it WRONG!'  Sheesh.  Conversely, it also bugs me when people think that their religion is the only one with any merit.


• the way the bubbles in soda make my nose tickle.

let's hope I can avoid all of these things in the next few days.

the end.

nesting ♥

Oh my goodness, this week has been a whirlwind.  I'm back in the city, attending RA training every day and working on RA stuff (bulletin boards, door decorations, inventories) every night.  Can we just talk for a moment about how much I love the people I work with?  What a supportive, fun, sweet group.  And, since I'm back in the city, I'm in my new room!  I moved up two floors in my building, and now I have a tiny bit of a view of the Empire State Building again, yay!  More importantly, I'm getting some more light in my room, especially that gorgeous seven-o-clock-ish, soft, golden-pink light that I love so much.  I finished putting up my decorations tonight, now it really feels like my room.  Please pardon the mess on my desk, I was mid-paperwork but too impatient to put off taking the picture!  (you can click on the photo for a bigger version)

♥♥♥♥♥

new york ♥

photo

In less than twelve hours, I'll be back to New York.  I'm so excited.... I miss the city.  This is the first time I've felt that way.  I always have missed my room by the end of the summer, and having daily routines, but this is the first time that I've really missed the city itself.  So here are a few of the things I'm looking forward to when I get back to my lovely little island.

• decorating my room, of course!  My wall decals arrived right on time, and I drew out some possible floor-plans for my room (yes, I'm that obsessed with it).  And I have sheer gauzy curtains now, yay!


• going to the new section of the High Line to do my required reading for the honors program at my school.  I did this last year and it was so, so lovely, and this year I'll have ten new blocks to explore!


• RA training.  I know it's geeky of me to enjoy this so much, but I'm a sucker for a good team-building exercise.  That aspect, paired with my fondness for paperwork and slightly tedious tasks (no, I'm not kidding, I actually love those.  I'd be a kick-ass secretary.), RA training is one of my favorite weeks.


• Afternoons at S'nice!  I did most of the work for my online class last semester while at my favorite table at S'nice with a glass of chamomile tea and for some reason it's a place that I'm extra-super-productive.


• Being within easy walking distance of my very favorite Anthropologie, the one in Chelsea Market.  Oh, thank god, because I'm going into some serious withdrawal.


• Seeing my pally pals, yaaaaay!!!!

I'll take photos of my room tomorrow, before and after decorating.

♥

On a completely unrelated note, I have a little request for you, lovelies...

I so, so appreciate your reading my little pastel corner of the internet, each and every one of you.   I try to make my blog content as pretty and honest and interesting as possible.  Which is why it's kind of a bummer to see the stuff from here posted elsewhere with no mention of having seen it here, especially when it happens frequently within a short time frame.  I'm all for sharing the loveliness, that's what blogs are for!  But if you come across something here that you like and you post it somewhere else, pretty please link back?

Thank you darlings!

♥

tonight I did something I never do.

I took a bubble bath.  For two hours.

It was my first day of vacationing at the beach, and the tub in the bathroom attached to my room is spectacular, very deep and white with a big silver faucet.  It was heavenly.  The water was just the right temperature, and the bubbles were almond-scented and light.  And who doesn't feel quietly glamorous lounging under mounds of foam, hair in a bun, with the water loosing wispy curls at the nape of the neck?  It feels like being in 1960s photograph.

I haven't felt really, truly happy very much since losing my dad.  Mostly I feel like I'm wandering around in a haze, not really aware of my surroundings, floating along in the hopes that someone's going to shake me awake and tell me that of course everyone's okay, I was just having a bad dream.  But tonight, alternately reading one of my favorite magazines (thank you so much, Taryn! ♥♥♥) and blowing loose suds at my exposed knees, the heartbreak wasn't nearly gone, but I did at least feel closer to being aware of the present.

♥