More Things I Will Always Be Obsessed With

Beetles.

The little beetle painting hanging up in the apartment, from Etsy seller Christie Chase.

Amazing shed beetle wing necklace, available here. 

Cute little beetle knob in happy colors, available here.

Bottega Veneta clutch with amazing weaved beetle detail, no longer available. 

Yes, really. Maybe it's the Victorian in me. I am not one for sciences like chemistry or physics, but natural history? I'm all about it. This semester I will be working with the Natural History Museum on a grant-writing project and I'm already excited about having the built-in excuse of already being on the property to wander the museum after meetings. While I could love any old dinosaur bones or giant geodes (and I do), I have a soft spot for beetles-the way some have horns and resemble rhinos, the metallic green ones I've randomly found on the sidewalk even though they look far too exotic to be city dwellers, how they can be giant without being disgusting like other bugs once they get so large you see all of their creepy details. Now, all beetles are not created equally; some are indeed just ugly. And larvae? Make me want to scream like a little girl. But the fancy ones, they let me forget all about their less attractive brethren. Those beetles are little self-contained units of everything that's cool about the natural world.


Glitter.

Confetti eggs with tutorial from here.

Cake made with edible glitter, from this adorable Kate Spade commissioned video.

Okay, if I have to explain why glitter is worthy of obsession, we just cannot be friends. Seriously! Glitter is sparkly, it's glamorous, it's fun, and while it's a pain in the arse to clean up, somehow it's worth the trouble. Every single time. It's things like glitter that make me happy to be a girl.


Heath Ceramics.

A couple of years ago while on a trip up to San Francisco I discovered the Heath Ceramics factory over the bridge in Sausalito and took one of their Sunday morning tours. Hands down best thing I did on that trip, and I did lots of fun stuff. I don't want to sound like an over-dramatic hippie and say it was life changing, but...it was sort of life changing. There was this gorgeous tile with a so many shades of red it was like a volcanic eruption captured in ceramic. I decided right then that if I ever had the opportunity, I would have to have some of their tile in my home. That trip involved visits to two places with kilns, so I guess it was a bit of my ceramics love blooming and a bit a growing awareness of interior design (I had just moved out of my dad's before this trip and still in a decorating frenzy), but I still think about that factory with the amount of joy Henry must have felt when he was let loose in Willy Wonka's. It was just an added bonus that a few months after my Heath discovery they opened their Los Angeles outpost. During my first visit to that store Mark found his first apartment, right down the street, so you might say Heath is indelibly marked in my mind. Now that Mark has started seriously talking about getting a house I'm not obsessed with finding the perfect place, something in the Ivanhoe district or any of that-all I want is a cute little place with a shitty fireplace, bathroom, or kitchen for me to have the excuse to replace it with Heath tile! Fingers crossed.


All images of Heath tile from the Heath Ceramics website.
All uncredited images are from Tumblrs without original sources listed.

At Play

So as I made clear here, I'm really into the idea of combining colors right now and decided that while I usually leave the nail art to manicurists or pre-made Minx nail strips, it would be fun to try my shaky hands at a tie-dye/graffiti inspired look that works because it doesn't have to be perfect. Next time I'll vary the colors more so the look is easier to see, but this was a punchy way to keep myself entertained while sitting in traffic or listening to drab lecture moments this week. Before adding the crackle polish, paint your nails in any number of color splotches and vary the design to make the look more like tie-dye; the more it resembles the swirls of rainbow sherbet, the better the end look will be!

So as mentioned with that talk of lectures, now that school's started my life is much more boring. I did manage to check out the Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA with my mom last week, though. While some of the exhibit's inclusions were unnecessary and sort of silly (I think we could have all done without the angora sweater from Ed Wood...), I fell in love with his drawings so full of lines that they resembled etchings and was mesmerized by how current they look, even though much of the most impressive stuff was from the late '70s when good ol' Burbank-residing Tim was just 20 years old. It was really inspiring to see into the mind of someone with such a unique aesthetic vision and a never-ending slew of ideas. There's also something to be said for someone who manages to make the quirky and downright odd seem approachable. Edward Scissorhands shouldn't have been for the masses, but there's so much charm in the detail of everything Tim does that it's hard to deny his talent or how it makes us feel. I couldn't take pictures, but here's the print I bought and the baby t-shirt my mom got me (erm, no, I don't have a baby, but when I do he will win a best dressed award).

I also had my first opportunity to check out the Stark Bar, which has brought even more drool-worthy seating to the museum's outdoor space. LACMA's outdoor environment is truly becoming a whimsical paradise for afternoon adventures, even with that awful 1970s Japanese Pavilion building.

Back to School I Go

Academic agenda, ie. the only reason as an online student I know when anything is due.

Notebook for lectures and taking notes for annoying online-only readings. 

Elephant paperclips. Because they're in the shape of elephants! Duh.

 These recycled paper pencils make note-taking a green exercise on two fronts.

Paper, composition book, and pencil socks to get me in the scholastic mood.

Graphic laptop sleeve that's cheap and cute without screaming "steal me."

Today is the first day of what should be the last year I'm in school. As a nerd, I have always loved back to school supply shopping and getting in the mindset to return to a place I considered a haven, even if I hated the idea of getting up before the sun in order to get there on time. Never mind that the new White Out doodles-free backpack I was excited to get would soon be carrying 40 lbs. of books to lug home, that I never used those pearlescent pastel paint pens I just 'had' to get for anything school related, or that I had no clue just how much I cost my mom and dad every September. I was just excited to get back to my school friends, learning about things that never ceased to amaze me (until I got to calculus and chemistry, when I was just confused), field trips, and recess.

Being in grad school, things are a bit different. My backpack has been replaced with a laptop; I don't actually go to class but do work on my own time from home or a coffee shop; and for all the learning I did do back in the day, the main object now isn't to socialize or please my parents with grades but to get a J-O-B that's fulfilling and keeps me in frilly frocks. That doesn't mean I can't find back to school shopping just as fun, though, even if the supplies in question have changed.

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Dreams of Floating Away

Don't mind me, I'm just having a moment. One where all I want to do is run away to Big Sur all alone, dig my toes into wet sand before diving into the cold, dark Pacific and dance with forest fairies while listening to Stevie Nicks, Kate Bush, and Bat for Lashes.