My Secret Hipster Fantasy

Somehow I got it into my head that I need a beach cruiser and I need it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

How perfect would the summer be if I could just ride around town on a hipster-colored bike? I would ring that bell so hard the neighborhoods wouldn't know what to do with me. All those street youths, just staring me down. I'd eat it up. I would. And I could carry so.many.things. in that basket. So much room for activities!

Here's a list of things I could carry in a beach cruiser if I had one:

A week's supply of coconut juice.
All my art supplies for lessons.
A small monkey in a top hat.
Stacks on stacks of cash on cash.
A lap giraffe in a velour track suit.
Four watermelons.
An aquarium.
One thousand iTunes songs and the entire internet.
Two cats.
Seven seasons of Doctor Who.
A very small TARDIS.
One or nine of my nieces and nephews.
MY SOUL.

See? So practical. Where do I sign up?

Oil Pulling

Remember when I had an inversion headache for like two weeks? And how desperate I was to get rid of it?

In the throes of my headache, I did some research on alternative remedies. The Cokes and pills were working, but not all the time, and not well enough. I was getting too reliant on Coke last year to keep me awake, so I weaned myself off of it. I'm not about to get addicted again! Plus it makes me feel jittery and sluggish after about an hour....not to mention all that sugar. Not good.

I found a remedy called oil pulling. Have you heard of it? You can find out what it is here. Basically, you swish  oil (I used coconut) around in your mouth for 20 minutes a day and it's supposed to detox your body. It can relieve headaches, whiten your teeth, help you lose weight, and give you more energy. I already had the coconut oil, so I decided to try it. Apparently it takes a few weeks of doing it daily to see some results. The people who love it say it can make you feel better in a lot of ways. There are still a lot of skeptics, but I figured it was worth a try.

Keep reading to see how it went:

Personalized Paper Dolls

I stumbled upon this the other day. This Etsy shop will create personalized paper dolls based on picture you send in. How cute is that? It would be a fun alternative to family portraits all over the house. The maker says: 

"Order a playful portrait of yourself, your pets or your family. You provide the photos and choose the clothes, and I'll illustrate a quirky stylized moveable likeness of your favorite animal or person. Custom paper dolls make perfect wedding gifts or modular family portraits. You can always add a new puppy or baby to the set!

The dolls arrive packaged as pictured. For a fun twist on the traditional family portrait, frame them in a shadow-box type frame."

Baby Leonardo DiCaprio

Remember when Leonardo DiCaprio was like...literally, the king of the world? I remember reading about him in my friend's teen bop magazine, watching him in Growing Pains, and secretly wishing I were Rose on the front of that boat. These pictures actually remind me of Justin Bieber. Is that bad? Don't hate me. It's true, and I speak truth. My favorite one is #6. Doesn't he look like Matt Damon in #2 and that burglar from Home Alone in #7?

PS, can't wait to see this.

Handwritten Poems by Nicole Lavelle

Handwriting blows my mind. Can you imagine how many kinds of "fonts" there are in the world? Think of all the people who have ever existed and what all their handwriting might look like. I would love to do an art project about that. I'm also a sucker for colloquial poetry. I like my poems quick and dirty. They need to feel effortless (even if they took seven straight days of toil) and sound like a glorified tweet. Does that make me shallow? I just can't handle poetry that seems too contrived. I guess maybe I should just say that I like good poetry. 

BFF lady friend Jeannette is a poet. I found out a year after graduation that she was a speaker in her college's graduation ceremony and performed a poem about life. She didn't even tell me. She took me to a poetry slam in Salt Lake once to hear her perform. Her poem was about trying to date a guy that everyone she knew approved of, but she personally didn't even really like. I ended up being a line in the poem. In that line she told me something I don't think she could have told me any other way. After that, I never pushed her to date this guy again. 

Want to hear something embarrassing? 

I went through a weird weird poetry phase in high school. I wrote poems about dumb teenage stuff that felt very real at the time. Example: boys. wanting freedom. feelings. more feelings. lots and lots of feelings. I was really bad at it. But I still love poems. 

Artist Nicole Lavelle writes poetry onto large sheets of colored paper in her one-of-a-kind handwriting. The best part is that you can commission her to handwrite basically anything for you. Example: your school's fight song, an old family saying, a really bad joke your grandpa used to tell, a list of every town you've lived in, and more.

PS: How often do I feel like this? : 

Things I Love: Daily Dishonesty

Have you ever met someone and bonded over something dumb with them so quickly, you feel like you were meant to be best friends after five minutes? That's basically what happened when I stumbled upon this graphic designer's site. Lauren Hom has a series called Daily Dishonesty, a daily observation of the little lies we like to tell ourselves. Don't tell me that at least three of these don't apply to you. 

6 Things To Get You Excited For Summer

Well, we made it to Texas. We've been to a few museums, ate some authentic Texas BBQ, and are about to go see the world's only twice-daily cattle drive. Tourists.

Being in Texas and feeling the sun again has made me so excited for summertime. This summer should be pretty great, because we are planning some fun trips; like our Floride roadtrip, Bahamas cruise, and maybe even a move to New Zealand when their summer comes around??? Who knows. All I know is that I need a beach and I need it now. So here's a quick list of my 6 favorite things about summer:

the beach
fresh fruit

hanging out in your swimsuit

drinks on drinks

the sun returns

But my absolute favorite thing about summer is the feeling in the air that life is a party... What do you love most about summer?

Color Color

I am seriously crushing on Design Seeds. It's a website where you can search for pre-made color palettes for any mood, room, design, or party your pretty little head can think of. You can even search for a specific color, and palettes with that color in them will pop up! 

It's funny how certain color combinations can recall a memory or a person. When I see lime green I automatically think, Weezer's green album. Blue has my mom written all over it. Here are some of my favorites:

  

I think I'm all about bright reds and blues right now because this winter has been so grey. I keep wearing crazy colors to work, and my boss has commented that my outfits feel so fresh and that the colors make her happy. Color is a wonderful thing. 

Things I Love: Stationery

one  // two // three // four // five // six // seven // eight // nine // ten

I grew up in a house where you wrote a note card if someone so much as smiled in your direction. So I got used to writing a lot of thank you notes. Now that I'm out of the house, I still love to write a line the old fashioned way, preferably on a gorgeous piece of stationery. I actually gave out number seven as my Favorite Thing at my party. They were a hit! Have you noticed yet that there are a lot of bizarre animals? Can't help it. Love it. 

My New, Free Glasses!

I've had glasses since 5th grade. Not just reading glasses. Glasses. The kind you have to wear all the time. I didn't even consider the idea of contacts until my junior year of high school. Add braces for three years, debilitating shyness, a weird haircut and some chub, and you've got my childhood. Yeah, I was that girl. Let's just say that Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling's biographies hit a little too close to home.

Now I just wear glasses when contacts aren't around. I kept seeing the ad below all over my Facebook, but it looked too good to be true. Since I'm basically half a step above being a poor college student, I finally decided to check it out. 

I don't think I'll ever use anything else to buy glasses or contacts again.

I was wary of buying glasses online without trying them on, but Coastal.com has a try-on view feature where you can upload a picture of yourself, type in a couple of numbers, and virtually try on all the glasses your heart desires from your couch. I found a pair I liked and typed in my prescription, along with the code FIRSTPAIRFREE at checkout, and only had to pay like $15 in shipping and handling. Considering my last pair of glasses cost almost $200, I almost jumped up on my couch with glee when I saw how much I had to pay. I almost feel like I'm stealing...this is too good of a deal! But hey, they offer, I take it. 

The only thing I could foresee as a potential issue is not having a prescription. I had an existing prescription from about a year ago that still felt correct, so I was fine. But if you don't have a current prescription, you'll probably have to still go see an eye doctor for an exam, then come home and buy the glasses online.  

 Here's the pair I ended up getting. They haven't come yet, but I'm pretty excited to get them. If I don't like them, Coastal offers a 366-day return policy with free shipping. You can return them and switch them out for another pair. I was so excited to find a pair I liked that I bought them without realizing that they're men's glasses! Oh well...I'm going to rock them with my big head anyway. Shh...don't tell. 

Edit: They came, and they're too small for my face. This is what I get for not specifying my face measurements. I'm going to send them back and get a new pair. Other than that, they look great! 

Things I Love: An Inviting Living Room

one // two // three // four // five // six // seven // eight // nine // ten

When I was little, I could sit and watch HGTV for hours. I loved watching designers decorate a space to make it look completely different. It almost seemed like magic. I wanted to be them. I actually looked into going to design school before I decided to go to BYU. Once I realized BYU's interior design program was kaput, I kind of gave up on that dream. Looking at these pictures makes me wish I hadn't. 

There's something so satisfying about a living room that hits the right chord of personal, comfortable, and interesting. My favorite is number four, Kate Spade's living room. 

A Love Poem to Kristen Wiig

your expressions, induplicable
seriously, how do you get your face like that?
my kristen wiig laugh includes crying
tears of awesome
let's be best friends

7 Valentine's Day Ideas

1 plantable valentine // 2 heart marquee light // 3 washi tape dixie cup vase // 4 "i love you to the moon and back" printable // 5 a manly gift // 6 no sew sequin heart sweater // 7 diy date idea arrows

Oh hey, guys! It's time for some festive diy ideas to celebrate Valentine's Day. I have a confession, though...I'm usually too lazy to make any of them. I just love finding them and looking at the pictures. But if I weren't too lazy, I'd definitely do #7, the date idea arrows. It's a no-excuse way to always have a date planned. I put these up a few days early so you have time to make them before Thursday. If you make any, I'd love to see pictures or hear about it. 

10 things that will have you asking, "Why didn't I think of that?"

I'm not much of a gagdet person, but I have found some things on the internet lately that have blown my mind. You know those things you see, and immediately think, "Why didn't I think of that?" Yeah, these products are like that. They're so practical that most people could probably think of them...but no one did...until someone did. It's like modern art. You could have made that; but did you? No. Someone made it for you to enjoy! Here we go! 

this runner's bracelet

this trash can

this ottoman-turned-guest-bed

this ice-cube tray

this usb-wall-plate

this windshield snow cover

this object-finder

this handy-dandy apocalypse water-saver

the broom-groomer

the best hair brush ever

Things I Love: Hyperbole and a Half

I'm always on the hunt for dumb internet stuff that makes me go, "Man, I legitimately understand what this stranger is talking about." Hyperbole and a Half is totally one of those things. 

This girl talks about things that people think, but don't know how to address... in hilariously bizarre comics. I mean, she depicts more truthful facial expressions with Paint in one post than that girl from Twilight shows in the whole series. She has taken a blogging break to deal with her clinical depression (which she also talks about in posts...in a really human and funny way), but her archive is pretty great.

An excerpt from her post "Why I'll Never Be an Adult": 

When I feel like being an adult, at first I'm like: 

And then like a week later I'm all:

And then I'm like...

See? This girl is preaching truth. Straight. Up. Truth.

Thing I Love: Hot Stone Massages

Guys. Have you ever had a hot stone massage? Would you like to know what they feel like? Let's just say that I felt like this the whole time it was happening:

That's right. I walked into the salon feeling like a fatigued old woman with too many worries, and in that hour and a half, I may have turned into Jennifer Aniston. My cares literally melted away and I may have had an outer body experience contemplating the universe.

The point is, if you are so visibly stressed out that your husband decides to give you and your best friend a Treat Yourself day for Christmas, take him up on it.