i love my alma mater

Let's talk about the Olympics for a moment. I've hardly watched any of the coverage on TV, but I do have a soft spot for the Winter Games and have watched a few events here and there, plus catching up on big moments on news sites and highlight reels. What has had my heart swelling this year is that Utah is home to the most Olympians of any state - 47! - and my tiny alma mater has 14 students competing on the U.S. Olympic team. I love that I went to a college where, instead of a football team and sororities, we had the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team and no class on Fridays for all the ski bums. NPR did a little story about it here.





I joked to Cameron that there's a reason I find exercising at the school gym to be a bit intimidating...

(Photos from the awesome Winter at Westminster flickr set)

cha-ching

If I were to list the top 3 items on my "need to buy" list, they would be: glasses, swimsuit, wallet. These have been on my "need" list forever. Glasses are 5 years old and I need a new prescription; my only one-piece swimsuit is falling apart from too much use; I've had the same Roxy wallet since 7th grade (!!!). All reasons why a few Internet discoveries of the past week have had me literally squealing with excitement and itching to click the "purchase" button.

Case No. 1: the glasses quandary. There is an adorable local spectacle shop I visited a few weeks ago with a plethora of hip and stylish glasses options. I would love to patronize this shop; however, the thought of spending $500+ on a pair and/or trudging through the policies of my sketchy vision insurance has been a huge deterrent. Enter Warby Parker, introduced to me as if by kismet over at For Me, For You via Daily Candy.



Be still my beating glasses-loving heart! This is the eyewear website of my dreams: each pair is a mere $95 including lenses and shipping, with free returns if necessary; there is a virtual try-on option, the pleasures of which are shown above; and, a la Toms Shoes, the company donates a pair of glasses to someone in need for every pair sold. I just need to pick out my frames, and I am buying these babies. Because I need to compromise with a semi-bland style for work, I'm going to ditch the black and get a pretty tortoise color. I am so excited.

As for the latter two, I spy some pretty (pretty looking/pretty affordable) options in the new Target collaboration with Liberty of London (tipped off first by Unruly Things via Refinery 29). Which means I'll be doing some doorbusting come March 14.




Now if the Internet could just drop into my lap the perfect warm, cute and versatile under-$100 coat, I'd be set.

(p.s. Please pardon my lack of posts of substance of late; I've been hibernating through winter as well as working my tail off on a major work project to be revealed shortly. At some point I hope to feel compelled to photo journal more regularly.)

diy

Saturday morning valentines crafts prove to be pretty tricky with two curious kitties and a snoop of a boyfriend in a one-room apartment. I did manage a few sneak-peak pictures while I tiptoed around in the kitchen and bathroom prepping my little love garland.




Lest you think I am the crafty one in this relationship, here is a look at what Cameron's been whipping up lately. A cat tree!


Pictures don't do justice to how much they've been loving this thing and each other since it was introduced into their habitat. It has made all of our lives a little bit brighter.

Valentine's weekend meant a very late brunch two days in a row (egg & avocado breakfast burrito, almond-crusted French toast), a movie date (Crazy Heart), snow tubing and gelato in quaint little Swiss-style small towns (Midway & Heber). Just simple and lovely, with a nice healthy dose of fresh air my life has been lacking this winter.

love

I love Valentine's Day - but then, I'm partial to pretty flowers, hearts, and all things lovely year-round. Here is my inspiration board of sorts for this year's holiday: my favorite bits of internet love, some of which I have incorporated into my real life, some of which are just pretty to look at on-screen.

(1+2) Box of flowers project via Design*Sponge
(3+4) Valentines from Rifle Paper Co.
(5) Cake topper via Once Wed that happens to look an awful lot like a certain brunette & bespectacled & bearded couple, you know the ones
(6) The prettiest stamps you've ever seen, King & Queen of Hearts via usps
(7) Love letters window display via Design*Sponge
(8) Cameron's valentine from Sycamore Street Press

a year in movies

One little chronicling project I undertook and stuck with in 2009 is to keep a list of all the movies I watched in a year. For me, the movies I watched can be a quick snapshot that helps me remember a time and a place. I used to save every single one of my movie ticket stubs for just this reason. I think I'll keep this up in 2010 because it's fun to have these collected all in one place to look back on.

I liked each of these movies in their own ways and would recommend almost all of them (just a couple of duds and disappointments, but no real dislikes for the whole year). All of the "popcorn" movies on the list that I actually ventured to the megaplex to see were either a) exactly what I expected (i.e. mildly entertaining but mostly formulaic - Benjamin Button, Up in the Air), or b) pleasant surprises that I was hugely entertained by (Star Trek, Sherlock Holmes).

The italics and accompanying photos are the movies that affected me most deeply and stand out as my favorites of the year. I only counted first-time viewings in this category, but not all were released in 2009. These films share three main characteristics: emotional depth that I connected with, flawless acting, and stunning visuals. Often all of the above.

(List is in chronological order by date watched, includes a link to each film's IMDB page and a note on where I watched it)

Changeling (imdb), dollar theater
Slumdog Millionaire (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (imdb), megaplex
Black Dynamite (imdb), Sundance @ Tower
Afghan Star (imdb), Sundance @ Rose Wagner

Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire (retitled Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, imdb), Sundance @ Rose Wagner

The Wrestler (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan: Disc 1 (imdb), Netflix
Trouble the Water (imdb), SLC Film Center @ Library Square
Coraline: 3D (imdb), megaplex
The Dhamma Brothers (imdb), SLC Film Center @ Library Square

Wendy and Lucy (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
Revolutionary Road (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
Groundhog Day (imdb), Netflix
If Lucy Fell (imdb), Netflix
Half Nelson (imdb), rewatch, I own
Gigantic (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
Star Trek (imdb), megaplex
The Ice Storm (imdb), Netflix
Adventureland (imdb), dollar theater
Doubt (imdb), Netflix

The Brothers Bloom (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway

Away We Go (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan: Disc 2 (imdb), Netflix

Phoebe in Wonderland (imdb), Netflix
Sicko (imdb), Giovale Library rental
Jackass Number 2 (imdb), rewatch, Cameron owns

Rachel Getting Married (imdb), Netflix
W. (imdb), Netflix
Across the Universe (imdb), borrowed
Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince (imdb), megaplex

The Cove (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway

The Color Purple (imdb), Netflix
Paper Heart (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
Romeo & Juliet (imdb), borrowed
Billy Elliott (imdb), Netflix

Up (imdb), dollar theater
Milk (imdb), rewatch, I own
Don't Look Back (imdb), I own
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (imdb), Netflix

Where the Wild Things Are (imdb), megaplex
The Class (imdb), Netflix

The September Issue (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
Pieces of April (imdb), rewatch, I own

An Education (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
The Royal Tenenbaums (imdb), rewatch, I own
Fantastic Mr. Fox (imdb), Salt Lake Film Society @ Broadway
Up in the Air (imdb), megaplex
Sherlock Holmes (imdb), megaplex

Grey Gardens (imdb), Netflix
Pirate Radio (imdb), dollar theater

three

There was going to be a post with this, but I set these three photos aside a week ago and can't remember what it was I wanted to say. Something about how I'm happy it's February, how January was such a hard month to trudge through, cold and dark and my apartment a gigantic post-holiday mess. Instead of dwelling on that I'll leave you with these three photos that make me very happy.

Top: an alimentari (tiny grocery) in my neighborhood in Florence
Middle: windows in Lucca, a perfect small Tuscan town near Florence
Bottom: The Ace in Palm Springs, looking over the "baby pool" where I spent my early mornings towards our hotel room and the San Jacinto mountains