Thing #96: Make my own Christmas cards

Last year, I made a promise – a promise that if you sent me an email with your postal address, I would send you a card.  It was one of those situations where I had a whole lot of love inside me and I didn’t know what to do with it – so I resorted, as I often do, to expressing it through stationery.

I didn’t tell you I was going to make the cards.  That was the element of surprise.

I thought I would have a few extra cards to make and write… but it turned out that I got a lot of emails and what I imagined to be some leisurely Christmas crafting turned into a two-day factory-style card-making extravaganza.  There is zero complaint in that sentence.

I used regular acrylic paints to do the illustrations and blank cards and envelopes from Paperchase.  It was so much fun.  Thanks to anyone who took part, and for all the lovely cards I received back.

This year, Christmas is looking a little like Crazytown Central, so I didn’t make any promises (I still love you).

€5 has been donated to UNICEF Ireland for the completion of this ‘thing’.  Click here if you too would like to donate online.

How did it get so late so soon?

The wisdom of Dr. Seuss… anyone else feeling like this lately?

It’s Here

It’s here.  December is here.  We can start talking about Christmas now… officially… not in hushed tones. 

Day Zero Project: an update

If you’re a regular little t reader, you will know that I have been doing the Day Zero Project (working my way through a list of 101 things to complete in 1001 days).  You may have noticed that Day Zero has come and gone.  I was supposed to be all done by October 3rd.  1001 days seems like a long time, until those days start ticking away.  When I realised my time was nearly up, I thought it would be better to just keep going.  I’m a little over half way there and I’m not giving up yet, even if it ends up taking me 2002 days.

Anyone else doing this?  How is it going?

Fear

Taking Photos

Made me smile.  I’m so guilty of this.

Best of… October 2013

via Sorakeem

If there was a theme to this month’s ‘Best of…’ post, it would be ‘How to wear your boyfriend’s clothes and look completely adorable’.

Or your Dad’s, Brother’s, Grandad’s… whatever.  Make it work.

via Le Blog de Betty

You have to have a certain attitude when you’re wearing your Grandaddy’s clothes.  Betty’s got it down.  I’d aim for just shy of smug. 

via Fashion Toast

via Sincerely Jules

Jules’ coat is a steal from Misguided (not her usual designer threads): available here

via Sorakeem

Love (!) this grown-up metallic backpack

via Sorakeem

via Trop Rouge

via Sorakeem

Interesting fact:  this post starts and ends with two of my favourite style pictures ever.  Of all time.  So perfect.

Hemingway: on writing

I love how most of Hemingway’s advice on being a good writer applies, more generally, to being a good human.

Also, a cocktail inspired by this great man.

Sleeping on Strangers

This video makes my heart sing.

Once, after a couple of sleeping pills knocked me out on a long flight, I awoke to find myself resting on the rigid, bony shoulder of one of my fellow passengers: a young boy (no more than twelve years’ old).  A small drool patch was beginning to form on his t-shirt.  I remember thinking, underneath my mortification, how sweet it was that he didn’t shrug me off.  He let me sleep… for God knows how long.  Now, whenever I hear people complain about ‘kids nowadays’, I like to remember that one.

Say Whaaat?

To-Do List

Johnny Cash’s to-do list, via Messy Nessy Chic

A DIY Project I actually want to do…

I’m forever pinning DIY projects I have no intention of following through with in real life.  But this one! This photo display looks like something I might finish. 

Tutorial here.  Simple, right?

Wardrobe Staples: The Grey T-shirt

Did you read Diana’s post last week about how to create the perfect ‘dressed up-dressed down’ look using a staple grey t-shirt?  I loved the idea since I’m always  conscious about not looking like I spent the whole afternoon getting ready (…even when I did).

Inspired, I just bought this Topshop one and it seems to go with every single other item in my wardrobe.

How to Moonwalk

Since incorrect moonwalking is a global issue.

I love that one man cared enough to make the gifs.  You can hear the passsion in his voice from the first line: “This is literally the exact opposite of the moonwalk.  Stop doing it.”

Anyway, it’s time to get practising so we can all look this cool.

Homemayde

 Noun:  The realization that each random passer-by is living a life as vivid and complex as your own - populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries, and inherited craziness - an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

More Music

The kind of mood I’m in lately calls for mellow tunes and lazy posts.  Ed Sheeran has one of those faces that I can’t look at for too long without feeling depressed.  But that voice… that voice…

Gimme some more o’ that

Bed, Bath & Beyond

I guess what scares me about marriage is ‘where do you find this person?’  You know a lot of times, most successful relationships, people meet through work, school, mutual friends.  But what’s most interesting to me is when people just meet in life, just randomly. You know, I have a friend, he got married, I asked him like  “Hey, uh, where’d you meet your wife?”  He was like “I was leaving Bed, Bath & Beyond. I was looking for my car - I drive a grey Prius. I saw a different grey Prius, I thought it was mine, I walked up to it, I realized I had the wrong car, but I bumped into Carol, we started talking, that was that”. That’s unbelievable. Think about all the random factors that had to come together to make this one moment possible - this one moment that changed these two people’s entire lives:  First off, this guy has to live in this particular town. Then he has to get a grey Prius. Then he has to need to go to Bed, Bath & Beyond. Then he has to go to that particular Bed, Bath & Beyond. Then there has to be another guy who also lives in town, also drives a grey Prius, also needs to go to Bed, Bath & Beyond, also goes to that particular Bed, Bath & Beyond at around the same time. Then they have to both park somewhat near each other, my friend has to leave before the other guy leaves, see the wrong Prius, think it’s his, walk up to it. Then the woman, Carol, needs to be near the wrong grey Prius for a million other random reasons. They bump into each other, they start talking, their entire lives are changed. That’s the most amazing and terrifying thing about life. It is, cause the amazing thing is that at any moment, any one of us can have that moment that totally changes our lives.  You could be leaving the show tonight, bump into someone… it could change your life.  You don’t know, that could happen.  The terrifying thing is… what if we’re all supposed to be at Bed Bath & Beyond right now?”

— Aziz Ansari

Water is Life

A four year old’s bucket list… and now I’m sobbing at my desk in work.

Support here.

Rubber Gloves: a love story

There was once a great American surgeon named Halsted. He was married to a nurse. He loved her immeasurably. One day Halsted noticed that his wife’s hands were chapped and red when she came back from surgery. And so he invented rubber gloves. For her. It is one of the great love stories in medicine. The difference between inspired medicine and uninspired medicine is love.

- from The Clean House, by Sarah Ruhl

Best of… September 2013

via Sorakeem

In the rest of the world, September is about transitional dressing.  Seriously, it’s all you bloggers talk about the whole month long.  Meanwhile, in Ireland, we’re all engaging in a collective eye-roll, because that ‘transition’ you speak of is imperceptible here.  It’s just an abrupt switch.  One minute Woodies DIY is selling out of barbeques and the next minute it’s electric heaters.  It’s that quick.  Game over.

It seems unfair because I like the idea of getting another couple of months out of my Summer dresses and introducing my Winter staples bit by bit.  I think we Irish can still embrace the pseudo-transition by focusing on colour: Autumn make-up trends, earthy toned threads and no more fake tan!  Yes!

via Sorakeem

via Sincerely Jules

The two pairs of booties featured above are both by Isabel Marant.  I have the latter in black, which indicates two things:  1.)  I have very good taste in booties and 2.)  I won’t be able to afford the first pair (or the white trainer pair) anytime soon.  Le sigh!

via Sincerely Jules

via Cocogroove

Any discussion of colour is going to have a link to Cocogroove.  My girl Marta knows colour.  I wish I could say ‘My girl…’ with some conviction.  Moving on… on my wardrobe wishlist:  Cobalt blue and army green.  And jumpsuits, always and forever.

via Fashion Toast

Newsflash:  Rumi does Monochrome.  Okay, that’s not news, but it’s not really old news yet either.  So perfect. 

via The Sartorialist

And finally, Scott is making me fall in love with random strangers on the street again.  His n’ hers versions of that above.

Next up: October, and then we’re all caught up.  Peace out! 

I know!  I can’t say ‘peace out’ with any conviction either.