Pocket Buddha

I love these little guys from Urban Outfitters!

They represent love, happiness, peace, harmony, faith and praise. For $5, you will receive a surprise Buddha (you don't get to choose which one, the Universe chooses for you!). I want to place an order just to see which one I receive.

On a Whim

I had the luxury of spending an entire day roaming the beautiful countryside of Loudoun County, Virginia last weekend with a friend. We visited two great antique emporiums and spent the majority of our time at On A Whim. If you're traveling on Route 15, you can't miss it...it's the pink polka dot barn! Donna, the gracious proprietress, was welcoming and cheerful. Her shop has a huge selection of new and vintage home decor and other eclectic merchandise.

On A Whim is located at :

14920 James Monroe Hwy (Rt 15)

Lucketts, VA

Or visit her on the web.

If you're in the D.C. area, it's a short drive and a beautiful world away.

Come On, Spring!

It's grey and dreary outside and I'm yearning for Spring. I have a brand new, blank slate backyard to beautify and am tired of perusing gardening catalogs and want to get my hands dirty!

Five Fabulous Things...

...I did last weekend.

This last weekend, I visited my friend Krista, in Northern Virginia. We had a great time talking, laughing and shopping. Here are five things we did:

1. Went to the Sugarloaf Arts & Crafts Festival. I wanted to buy so much, but settled on one precious little porcelain bowl by Carolyn Carroll.
2. Debated whether or not that song about the Monkey and the Chimp was a real song or a figment of my imagination and whether it went, "Abba Zabba Dabba" or something else (Krista actually did not debate the latter since her position was that the song was imaginary, so arguing about the correct lyrics would be futile).
3. Shopped for vintage finds at a pink polka dot barn (more on this in a future post).
4. Had a beautiful dinner at Lebanese Taverna on Saturday night and blueberry pancakes for Sunday breakfast.
5. Decided that having a great friend who laughs with you 'til you both cry is one of the greatest things in the world.

My first meme

Questions borrowed from hulaseventy.

james brown or marvin gaye?
Marvin Gaye.

chinese or indian takeout?
Indian takeout? What’s that? We’ve moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, where spicy BBQ is considered exotic. I do like me some hot & sour soup when I’m not feeling well.

fleece or knitted blanket?
I used to have a knitted blanket and my toe made a hole in the bottom. I used to lay in bed and “work” the hole with my toe when I couldn’t sleep. It was oddly comforting.

girls with makeup or without?
I have two friends, Sally and Krista, who look absolutely ravishing without a stitch of make-up. I require some minor “enhancement”.

costco or whole foods?
I’m a Trader Joe’s girl. I will travel hours to shop there.

wildflowers or arrangements?
Wildflowers, especially dahlias and lilies.

tradition or shakeups?
I like the excitement and challenge of a shakeup.

cello or trumpet?
Cello. Trumpets sound jarring to me and make me think of war. Although, now that I think of it, the cello makes me think that someone is about to die.

watch-wearing or no?
For a time in my life, I tried to be one of those people who doesn’t wear a watch. I was fooling myself. Time is so incredibly important to me. People who are chronically late bother me. Get it together.

salt water or fresh (for swimming)?
I grew up in the hot Central Valley of California. My mom’s friend Betty had a large backyard with a swimming pool. When I was a little girl, they used to take me along to pick apricots and then they set up this whole dried apricot factory in Betty’s backyard. They set up a variety of tables and laid the halved apricots out in a single layer with a blanket of cheesecloth. As the days went by, the air became scented with this super sweet peachy fragrance. Anyway, to make a long story short, one day it was about 108° and my mom let me go swimming in Betty’s pool by myself (I know, we won’t even begin to discuss the supervision issue!). I have a very vivid and sensual memory of being submerged in the water and breaking through the surface from the cool liquid world to the blistering air, from the harsh chemical smell of chlorine to the sweet scent of apricot (and for some reason, eucalyptus, there must have been a tree nearby), from the lonely silence of underwater to the joyful sound of my mom and Betty laughing in the distance. It’s one of the best memories of my childhood.

pants or shorts?
Pants. But I have rocked some short shorts in my time.

chatspeak or absolutely NOT?
Not. Watch this.

digital camera or old-school?
Digital.

wireless or plugged in?
Both.

waltz or tango?
I can do neither. When I’ve seen waltzing couples, they look like they are experiencing love and fun. When I watch the tango, I feel like a voyeur, it is very erotic. I prefer the let-loose-get-your-groove-on kind of dancing.

brian williams or anderson cooper?
Anderson Cooper for his hotness and Brian Williams because he seems like a kind, smart man.

time or newsweek?
Neither.

waterbed or mattress?
When I fell in love with my husband, he had a bachelor pad waterbed. I hated that bed, but the sound of the water sloshing beneath me is part of the soundtrack of When We Were New.

cream and sugar or not?
Three Sweet n’ Lows, skim milk and a shot of espresso.

CNN or BBC News?
People with British accents sound so much more intelligent.

iTunes or something else?
iTunes

scented candles or unscented?
Mostly scented, except at dinner to avoid competing smells. My current favorites are spicy, smokey and woody, like Jonathan Adler’s Big Sur.

prairie or mountain?
I’m going with mountain. Prairies tend to be in the middle of the country. I have this neurotic thing about being in the middle of the country. I need to be closer to the edge.

socks or barefoot?
I like looking at my feet.

matt damon or ben affleck?
James McAvoy.

brass or pewter?
Pewter has a cold, transparent quality that I can’t resist.

wool or cotton?
I’m a California girl. Cotton all the way. It was the main industry of my hometown (Bakersfield). Plus, it’s the fabric of our lives.

willow tree or pine?
Willow to look at; pine to smell.

gerald ford or jimmy carter?
Jimmy Carter (a strickly partisan choice, I’m sure both are fine men).

france or italy?
I have visited neither. I like the “idea” of France: sidewalk cafes, marche au puce, steak frites, girls who look like Amelie. But I’m told the actual experience is a letdown. Someday I will see for myself.

electric or gas stove?
In the kitchen of my dreams, there is a mack-daddy commercial 60” stainless steel 8-burner Wolf gas range. Currently, I struggle with a four burner electric. I’m sorely in need of an upgrade.

thrift store or outlet?
I abhore everything about outlets: the atmosphere, the customers, the merchandise. It freaks me out how people get so excited about them.

japanese garden or english garden?
English. Wild, weedy, cottagey English.

sophia loren or liz taylor?
Sophia Loren.

Photoshop Fun

I'm playing with Photoshop. This is the film filter applied to a simple snapshot.

I want...

...to make window panels for my dining room with this fabric by Kaffe Fassett.

What?!

My pony rarely wins, but I am somewhat perplexed at no lead acting Academy Award nominations for 'Atonement'. James McAvoy is a brilliant actor and was stunning as Robbie in the film. If you haven't seen it, get to it, you won't be disappointed. See the trailer and some teasers here. I'll have to get my fix via the British film awards.

The book by Ian McEwan is amazing as well. I read it before I saw the film and kept wondering how the movie experience would have been different if I didn't know the ending. It's one of my favorite reads of all time and I'm certain people are tiring of me raving about it and begging them to read it.

MLK

"Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority."

-Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963

Give it a go

Hello. It's frightfully chilly today and I'm staying warm inside. Was feeling slightly self-indulgent and poked around to find out about a blog. And here it is. Now I am not sure what it was I felt I needed to say so badly.