Blood Suckers vs. Brain Eaters

I don't know about you guys, but I am OVER vampires. O.V.E.R.  I still love and always will love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as far as I'm concerned that is the only vampire universe that I need.  I don't need Twilight (a vampire that gets all glittery in the sunlight instead of immediately bursting into flames?  that is just stupid) or The Vampire Diaries.  I've seen the first season of True Blood and I'm looking forward to the next one, but it still pales in comparison (no pun intended) to my girl Buffy.

image link

It seems that the newest trend is zombies.  I saw 28 Days Later when it came out in the theater and thought it was pretty good.  Now The Walking Dead is on AMC and I am loving it!  I was wondering how they would be able to make a continuing series about brain-eating dead people, but so far it is holding my interest and leaving me wanting more.  Not to mention the special effects are incredible...and disgusting.

This chick has definitely seen better days.  

But in light of this zombie phenom that we are currently experiencing, I am enthralled with these beautifully grotesque creations from Jessica Harrison.  At first glance they look like figurines that my grandmother may have kept in her curio cabinet, but upon closer inspection they are seriously disturbing and Grandma would have nothing to do with them.

She has many more creations on her website.  Check them out here!

I'm a pepper, are you a pepper?

link

I have a great love for Dr. Pepper.  It started as a child when I used to drink the glass bottle version at my grandparents store.   There was nothing better on a hot summer day than a cold bottle right out of the icebox.   With a moon pie, of course.

The commercial was super catchy too and always made me want a drink.



Then when Bonne Bell started making the jumbo Lip Smacker I was hooked. Anyone that knows me is aware that I ALWAYS have a Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker on hand.  And for years now, I have been buying them in bulk for fear that would stop making it.

I don't drink Dr. Pepper anymore.  Now that I'm older, I try to pay a bit more attention to the types of sugary substances I put in my body (it's typically limited to my daily iced coffees).  BUT, while researching for this blog post, I found this:

Link

WHAT?!?!?!  It's only sold in the UK as far as I can tell.  DAMN.  I would possibly drink nothing else if I could get my hands on this.  Anyone want to start a petition to get it stateside?

Home is a state of mind...

It's early November and the time has come for me to start the daunting task of finding holiday gifts for all of my loved ones.  I am trying to be a bit more organized this year and am using a great website called Wishpot.  I started using it for a online wish list that I send to family on my birthday and Christmas, but they also have a great gift idea section where you can save anything that you come across online that you think will be the perfect something for that special someone.  During my "window shopping", I've discovered a theme that is striking a chord with me.  States.  Your home state, your lover's state, the state you live in.  All can be found in a variety of crafty items.  

Like these adorable pillows by Love, California:

my home state, represent!

my honey's home state

and where our hearts are

And I just love these colorful prints from {q.a.}Design:

These are actually on my wish list for any family that might be reading this (wink wink).

If you think you might like something a little more understated, these necklaces from Truche are beautiful.

This shop doesn't seem to have an Alabama necklace which is probably a gross oversight, but I still love them anyway!  

I suppose I could get this one from Wooden Nickels.  It's pretty darn cute, too.

So there are a few ideas, if you are far from home and want to feel a little bit closer or you are home and want to celebrate it!

Friendly's wants to make you fat...or possibly kill you.

I walk past Friendly's everyday on my way to pick up my daily coffee.  And I am consistently amazed by the posters that they have in the window showcasing unbelievable and unmanageably large sandwiches.  I can only imagine that they are tasty, but I could never bring myself to eat one.

Here is a sampling for you: 

Soft Pretzel Bacon Burger

I love a soft pretzel (not as much as my boo does, but I come in close second), but this seems excessive.  Have one or the other, you know?

Grilled Cheeseburger Melt

Now, let's talk about this beast.  This is not one, not two, but THREE sandwiches in one.  Two grilled cheeses and a burger.  For all things gluttonous and greasy, share this with a family of four but don't eat it all by yourself!  This should come with a side of embalming fluids because if you eat if, you are going to DIE.  

Maybe you aren't convinced that Friendly's wants to make you fat, so let's take a peek at their breakfast menu.

Apple Caramel Walnut Pancakes

It's not enough to have pancakes slathered in butter, caramel and syrup so it is imperative that you have a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream to top it off.

Caramel Cinnamon Swirl French Toast

The description right off of the Friendly's website: 

"A cinnamon roll split in half and prepared like French toast. Served with sweetened Philadelphia® whipped cream cheese, warm caramel topping, our new Maple Syrup ice cream, and whipped topping."

Yep, cream cheese, caramel and, you guessed it, ICE CREAM.  I get it.  You are an ice cream parlor, but save it for dessert.

This leads me to the coup de grâce of the Friendly's menu:

Giant Crowd Pleaser

This is only 12 scoops of ice cream with your choice of 6 toppings.   I know they mean to have you share it with at least one other person, but why not go for the gold?  Dig in, fatties.  

Ok, ok, I'm not some crazy hippie that is going to tell you to eat only organic, home grown veggies washed down with wheatgrass juice, but just take care of yourself people.  Eat pancakes with syrup and blueberries, but hold the caramel and ice cream.  Moderation, kiddies.  For realz.

(All pictures courtesy of Friendly's informative website)

Come on, get happy!

image credit:  Gregory Gibbons

This is the Dymaxion, a concept car developed in 1933 by a US inventor and architect named Buckminster Fuller who is best known for designing the geodesic dome.  Well, actually this is the newest version of the Dymaxion car that has been re-worked by Fuller protégé, Norman Foster.

I totally love it because it reminds me of my favorite camping vehicle (says the woman who never goes camping), the Airstream.  If I owned the Dymaxion I would feel obliged to have 8 kids and tour the country singing songs about love and happiness and all things mod.  Or maybe I would turn it into a traveling pop up shop and sell all kinds of nifty gift items.  Who wants to contribute to my newest business venture?  Silent partners with fat wallets need apply.

Facebook killed the blogging star....

It has been almost a year since my last blog entry and that is just ridiculous! What have I been doing, you may ask? Well, I have been enjoying married life and working like a crazy woman and, oh yeah, I joined Facebook. Maybe you've heard of it? I tried my damnedest not to conform to the ways of over 307 million people worldwide, but alas I did.

At first, it was fun. Seeing how many people I could "friend". How many old high school pals I could track down (not as many as I would have liked for only have 42 people in my graduating class). How many old boyfriends I could find. Not to mention having a contest with my husband to see who could get the most friends the fastest. He totally creamed me. He is one popular dude. Anyway, once I had accomplished all of these incredibly important goals, I found my free time being sucked dry by the endless stream of updates about a bunch of nothing. I will admit, it can be entertaining and I find out about the latest celebrity death faster than ever before, but honestly it isn't enhancing my life. And I've stopped blogging. Now when I find some interesting tidbit, I immediately post it on Facebook and anxiously await someone to "like" it or even better actually comment on it! It is such a thrill to have someone acknowledge the useless bit of information I just plugged into their brain. Even worse, now when I see friends that I haven't seen in a few weeks, I can't tell them anything that they haven't already heard about through FB. Damn, this social network! (Speaking of, the movie is brilliant and I totally recommend it.)

So what is my point? I'm not sure really, since I'm a little rusty with the blogging bit, but I think I'm going to try to Facebook less and write more. I hope you will follow me and feel free to comment (I need your approval, obvi!) and I promise, more pictures and less text next time!

Rockabye baby!

Lately, many of my friends have been jumping on the baby wagon and I couldn't be happier or more excited for them! I have also been buying lots of little tiny clothes and loving every minute of it, but for the first time just last week I actually bought from a baby registry. Maybe most people would think of this first, but I just love looking a baby-sized clothing, so I usually get pulled into Baby Gap before I ever even think to ask my friends what they might want or NEED. Point being, I was looking my friend's baby registry through Amazon and came across these:




And there are SO MANY MORE! You can buy lullaby renditions of Coldplay, Bjork, Radiohead and even Metallica! So for all of you folks out there with little people and taste that surpasses "Twinkle, twinkle little star..." these just might be for you. Check out all the options here.

Online magazine crush...

Oh, how I have missed Domino Magazine. I used to love opening my mailbox and finding the newest issue, full of fabulous design and inspirational ideas. Well, today I happened upon Lonny:


This is 195 pages of gorgeous homes and great fashion. I still miss being able to actually flip the pages, but Lonny makes up for it by hyperlinking to various items on each page. For example, in their article featuring Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge (another one of my favorite design sites), they have 16 pages dedicated to her and on each of these you see artwork, furniture and fabric. If you like something, click on it and it links to where you can buy it! It is genius really. And I am hooked. Check it out and I'm sure you will be too!

New online obsession...

I just discovered this online boutique called Ruche. It is like a less expensive version of Anthropologie and who doesn't love that?!

Here are a few of my favorite items:

eggplant ruffle sweater dress $42.99

modern victorian sweater dress $54.99


twisted rope stretch belt in mustard $14.99

Once I have recovered from all of my nuptial spending, I will be making some purchasing from here, without a doubt!

Well, hellooo there!

Wow. I can't believe it has been 4 months since I posted to this blog. I will say that I have been a little busy getting ready for the biggest day of my life thus far, October 3rd, at which time I will officially become Mrs. Ashley Reader. Whoa! And October 4th will be the party to celebrate the name change. I have to give major props to my dear friend, Brad, who made us the most amazing wedding favors and for this I will be forever in his debt. (So please contact him and give him lots of money to make awesome things for you!) Just look at the invite he did for us:


He is truly amazing, right? There is more, but I can't figure out for the life of me how to make a PDF into a JPG so I can upload it. For now, this small taste of his greatness will have to do. I promise not to be gone so long next time and will put up loads of pics from the party of the century, aka my wedding.

Biscuit may be getting a new present!

Nobody likes cleaning out a litter box. Nobody. But I might not mind it as much, if I had one of these:


It is the ModKat Litter Box and it is kind of revolutionizing kitty poop boxes everywhere. The price is a little steep, but with all the money I will save on litter liners I should make my money back by the time Biscuit joins Nestor in that big litter box in the sky.

Available in a variety of colors, too. You can pre-order now and start saving your pennies!

Weapons of destruction...

A couple of years ago, two of my best friends, Heath and Lindsay, gave me this awesome grenade oil lamp for my birthday.

(the gold one!)

And now I think I want to pick up one of these beautiful bomb flower vases.


What do you think this says about my design aesthetic?

No, no, no....just...no.

Ok, I love bacon. I do. It is so delicious and breakfast just isn't the same without it. Do you know what IS good without it, though? Vodka. I'm sure of it. But if you aren't as convinced as I am, then this is for you:


That's right. Bacon flavored vodka. You can make cocktails with names as enticing as "Irish boar". Who wouldn't want to drink that? Oh yeah, me. And people with a gag reflex.

Nesting is fun!

I have been buying new furniture, hanging pictures and organizing. Did I move again, you ask?!? No! I just decided to start making my house a home. I think I am so used to moving ever year and a half or so that I always set up house (paint, buy a few new items, but no big ticket purchases), but never actually settle in. Now that I own my own condo, I'm completely making it mine.

So what have I purchased? A new, lucite (or invisible, as my friend Ara likes to say) coffee table that looks super fab in my living room. By the way, this is not my living room, but I will be posting pictures of all my new purchases in their natural habitat very soon.

peekaboo coffee table

But buyer beware, if you have a super rambunctious kitty, you may want to equip him or her with protective headgear before introducing this coffee table. My cat almost knocked herself out after running through the living room at top speed!

I also bought a great shag rug that goes underneath my new coffee table. This replaces the flokati rug that my sweet Biscuit mistook as her litter box after she lost her lady parts.

And I got this awesome mirror for my bedroom. It is HUGE and I love it!

And then and THEN and THEN I finally bought a new duvet cover!

pintuck duvet

I'm not sure if you can tell from this picture just how beautiful it is, but trust me...it is beautiful!

I also finally framed some great prints that I have been keeping in a drawer for way too long. My mom bought me this awesome owl print for Christmas that has been desperately waiting to be hung.
I ordered my frames online from American Frame and I have to recommend them. I was a little nervous about it at first because you have to assemble them yourself, but it is so easy and inexpensive that I may never buy frames from a walk-in store again!

I'll update with more pics soon and I may have an online poll to decide what wallpaper I'm going to put in my foyer!

How do you cut your pizza?

I kind of love power tools. I put together almost an entire apartment's worth of IKEA furniture with a simple screwdriver and then a friend of mine lent me his power screwdriver and my life changed!

So, perhaps this should be my next purchase:

via

After all, a table saw would probably be overkill.

Mmmmm....donuts.....

image

I love donuts. I don't eat them as much as I would like because I also like my pants to fit, but if they didn't have an immediate impact on my thighs I would eat them religiously. Since moving to Boston, I have been a regular patron at Dunkin' Donuts. Every morning and every afternoon I have my usual coffee: medium iced French Vanilla with milk and one sugar. Yum. And if I'm feeling just pre-menstrual enough I may indulge in a chocolate frosted donut. It's good, but not great. The coffee is great, the donut is mediocre. But I love donuts (not to mention chocolate), so I eat it and it's good.

image

I grew up in the south where Krispy Kreme is the donut king. There is nothing better than driving past a Krispy Kreme late-night and seeing the "hot donuts now" neon sign illuminated. Melt in your mouth deliciousness. I'm still surprised that every Krispy Kreme that was opened in Boston went out of business within a year. One thing I can say for the Bostonians, is that they are loyal. I respect that, but Krispy Kreme will always be my number one donut.

That being said, this is unacceptable:

via

What you are looking at is a sloppy joe sandwiched between a delicious Krispy Kreme donut. What a waste.

via

And these are bacon cheddar cheeseburgers on, you guessed it, glazed Krispy Kreme donuts. Tragic.

Someone, somewhere eats this. This someone has a problem. It may be this: This is why you are fat.

New design crush...Henry Road

I was just introduced to the beautiful work of Paula Smail/Henry Road via Design Milk. She is based out of Los Angeles and designs the most gorgeous pillows, furniture, bags and textiles. My favorite item, that I am putting on my wishlist is this gorgeous chandelier (the largest one in the pic):

I hope this economic crisis ends soon so I can start buying more STUFF!

Can I cry for just a minute?

I just found some devastating news. Ok, no one died, I still have my job and my wonderful fiance, so I suppose I am being melodramatic, but WAHHH! My favorite of all favorite magazines is going kaput! Domino magazine is no longer. I have every issue! And, just because I'm whining...why did they just send me a renewal letter for 2 more years?! What a tease! I guess I should cancel my check, huh? Last time this happened, Blueprint magazine went under before my subscription was up and I was stuck with Martha Stewart Living for 9 months. Who knows what I will get in place of my beloved Domino. Sigh.

R.I.P.

Little things are cuter than big things

I'm back from my vacation and it was such a nice, relaxing break from the cold Boston winter. I had the good fortune to arrive in Arizona one week after my mom's miniature horse had her baby! A baby miniature horse! A tiny, tiny horse! Do you understand what I am telling you? No? Take a looksie:



So you can get a bit of perspective, I am 5'3". Not tall at all, but look at me compared to my mom:

It's like I'm a giant! So as you can tell from the previous video, my mom is taller than the momma horse who is taller than the teeny baby horse! Now check this out (and make sure your volume is up):



Can you believe how cute and tiny little Apache Tear is? I thought my head was going to explode on several different encounters, which explains this protective headgear:


After visiting with my mom, I got to spend some quality time with my sweet sister. We stayed at the super hip Mondrian hotel in Scottsdale for 2 nights.





We had such a great time and I definitely recommend the Mondrian (they have one in LA, too) if you are in the area and want to pamper yourself a bit.

Then I met up with my boo in sunny California where we spent time with his lovely family. Including his brand new niece, Laurel:

Again with the tiny!

And of course, we got to spend time with Joel's incredibly adorable nephew, Isaac, who is less tiny than last time I saw him, but still little and so, so cute!


All in all, it was a truly wonderful vacation and I loved getting to spend so much time with the ones that I love and don't get to see enough.