Archives for 2008

Well, I am hitting the malls on this cold and gray Saturday. I know it is a daring feat, and one that may prove to be very stressful. That is why I am dressed in pink, with hearts and a ribbon in my hair. If anyone tries to ruin my holiday spirit, they will regret it! Be warned!

Flickr

No words needed. Just pure happiness captured in a picture.

I love this idea! I pulled it from The Unicorn Diaries (via Decor8) and I think it is such a whimsical and beautiful (and also helpful!) way to make a Christmas (or any kind of gift) list! Then you can keep it for years and look back at what style was inspiring you at a given time. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

Well, Thanksgiving is over and if you’re at all like me, you are feeling an overwhelming wave of, “Is that all?” On one hand, Thanksgiving is a great holiday if you love to eat, watch tv, lay around on the couch for what feels like days and then eat leftovers. However, if you are like me, your mind can not stop questioning your actions (or lack thereof). I have a difficult time not doing anything. I need to be doing something productive or else I feel like my time has been wasted. I need to be cleaning, organizing, working, talking, eating (so there are a few circumstances when I do not feel like the holiday is a complete bust because I certainly am able to fit in enough chatter and food). But overall, I am at a loss. I am the type of person who can’t even watch a movie on TV if it there is still day light hours to burn. I can commit myself to a half hour program (one hour if it’s a reality tv show) and that’s about it. So when everyone was curling up on the couch to watch a movie the day after Thanksgiving, I cleaned the kitchen, took a shower and did a load of laundry.

What I did not do, however, was the one thing I should have been doing; working on my novel. The novel that I promised myself I would have at least 50,000 words completed by Monday, December 1^st. I have about 5,000 words. I know, I know. Weak. But at least I didn’t do what I was convinced I would do, and almost did. I didn’t abandon my project. I am still working on it and have declared that I will finish it. Even if another story idea pops into my head and it looks all pretty and fancy and has a new bright bow on it and is dying for me to start writing it (right now!), I won’t do it. I’m sticking to my original one because I’m sick of having hundreds of one page stories on my computer. I’m tired of starting a great new story idea only to abandon it the very next day. This is what I am going to be working on for the entire month of December. So even though November is National Novel Writing Month, for me, I am giving myself the entire month of December as well.

I think that’s fair.

So onward we go, full steam ahead to Christmas! Because Christmas is a holiday that I really can get excited about.

I am so excited for Thanksgiving that I am already color-coordinating my Thanksgiving tablescape and bargain-hunting for Pottery Barn-style table decorations.

Design Mom is offering a fantastic giveaway! I had to spread the word (even if it lessens my chance of being selected).

There is something so wonderful about looking at baby pictures of yourself. Why is that? Does it remind you of your innocence? The person you were meant to be all along?

I love DesignMom‘s idea for sorting Halloween candy. How pretty does this look?

“But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.’ So finally I would write on true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say…I was trying to do this all the time I was writing, and it was good and severe discipline.”

—A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway

Your fingertips across my skin
The palm trees swaying in the wind
Images
You sang me Spanish lullabies
The sweetest sadness in your eyes
Clever trick

Well, I never want to see you unhappy
I thought you’d want the same for me
Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I’m trying not to think about you
Can’t you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should’ve known you’d bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

We walked along a crowded street
You took my hand and danced with me
Images
And when you left, you kissed my lips
You told me you would never, never forget
These images

No

Well, I’d never want to see you unhappy
I thought you’d want the same for me
Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I’m trying not to think about you
Can’t you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should’ve known you’d bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

I cannot go to the ocean
I cannot drive the streets at night
I cannot wake up in the morning
Without you on my mind
So you’re gone and I’m haunted
And I bet you are just fine

Did I make it that
Easy to walk right in and out
Of my life?
Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I’m trying not to think about you
Can’t you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should have known you’d bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

———

These are the lyrics from the song Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy. Great, great song. Very sad, but the lyrics read like poetry. Can’t ask for more than that.