Today's the Day!

So I can barely contain my excitement - Kevin is coming to visit TONIGHT!
I've been counting down the days since he bought the plane tickets and now it's finally here. I'm charging up the camera and making a list of everything we simply MUST do together. Here's what I have so far:

1. Hug for a long time

2. Eat dinner at Cenare for our anniversary and my birthday

3. Go to Austin to visit his family

4. Watch GLEE!

5. Hang out with our cool friends

6. Swap music

7. Eat at Spoons Yogurt

8. Sleep all day on Sunday

9. Watch Friends together

10. Carve pumpkins!

I can't even tell you how thrilling this week(end) is going to be. It's been two months since we've seen each other in real life and it's so exciting. He leaves New York after his two midterms and he should get here around 9:30 tonight! I'm super bummed out because I can't pick him up at the airport for the epic "Welcome Home!" embrace in public, but our dear friend Jenna is doing the honors (just no funny business). This will give him an hour to get used to being on the ground again before I get home and take care of #1 on the list above.

Did I mention how stoked I am?! Are there too many exclamation points in this post? Well I don't care, because my boyfriend's coming home!(!!!!)

What are you excited about this weekend?

Things I Love

So many exciting things are about to happen!
Some things I'm loving right now...

1. My New "My Little Pony," Scootaloo. She has a side ponytail:

2. Mail from Kevin (love of my life):

3. My new headboard my mom made me for my bed, along with my cool reading lights on the wall (the fabric on the duvet cover and headboard is from an Orla Kiely tablecloth):

4. My pencil sharpener/paper shredder hybrid (shaped like an elephant):

5. The "Couple's Couch" at Mugwalls, along with the cool lamp above it:

6. My fun shelves with even more things I love on them:

7. FoundPaperCo's beautiful and spunky vintage paper:

8. Owls - any and all:

(cred)

(cred)

(cred)

9. The countdown to November 13th, when I get one of these babies(!):

WHOOP!

10. Everything the month of October brings!

• ACL (done!)
• My sister's 18th birthday
• Kevin's visit home from NYC!
• HardChord DynaMix's mid-semester gig: "It's Pronounced DyNAMix"
• My 21st birthday (!!!)
• Hopefully some autumn weather

What do you love? Anything you're looking forward to?

Where The Wild Things Are

I can hardly wait for October 16, when Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are finally comes out! I loved the book as a kid, even though I found it a little scary. Thankfully, I've grown up quite a bit, and am no longer afraid, but looking forward to it. In honor of the film, here are some Wild Things-inspired links for you to enjoy:

The Film

You can check out the trailers, some stills, and download a poster, if you're really into it.

The Book

If you've never read the original Where The Wild Things Are, you need to. Not only because it's so wonderful, but because you've been living under a rock!

The Art
I found this site (via Twig and Thistle) with beautiful art inspired by the book. You should definitely take a look. Here's one I liked:

The Artist

Gregory Maguire, responsible for the book Wicked, wrote Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation. It basically talks about Sendak's genius and drawings, and it looks wonderful.

I hope you're as excited for the film as I am... I think it will be beautiful! Enjoy your Tuesday.

Kurt Halsey

I can't sleep. I tried going to sleep with the tv on in the background, but I just found myself imagining what the picture looked like judging by the noises being emitted. I can't listen to my iPod due to the fact that it is going to be waking me up in the morning from the iHome. I tried looking up suggestions for falling asleep but nothing grabbed me. I have decided to remedy this by blogging.

I still don't know what exactly I want this blog to be, so for now I'll just jump around until I find its calling.

I like to save photos and art I find online to my computer so I can enjoy it whenever I wish. My friend Jenna suggested that I share the things I find, and promised that she would read it. So here is my first attempt - there will be a quiz, Jenna.

An artist I've been crazy about for a long time is Kurt Halsey. He paints, draws, and creates loveliness. A while back he had a set of prints stretched on canvases that Urban Outfitters sold, and I now own. So I get to have a couple of his pieces in my home, which is nice. His work is largely of the portrait variety, though not strictly so. Some of his work for you to enjoy:

[All pictures by Kurt Halsey]

Hello, Old Friend

It's been a while. The last time I wrote was back in July, and then lots of crazy things happened. I took the picture above in St. Petersburg, Russia on my trip to Northern Europe at the end of July/beginning of August. Once I returned, it was all about spending as much time as possible with the boyfriend before he was off to NYC, then recruitment, and now school. Needless to say, it's not easy getting back into the swing of things. Hopefully I will have a real post for you soon, but for now here are some random tidbits for you.

Not to totally disgust you or anything, but I am so in love.

I have been spending a lot of time lately in a little coffee shop new to the area. We prefer to call it something different every time we mention it (MuggleWumps, MushyWizards, MistyWhiteout, etc.), but normal people call it MudWalls. It has been a delight to spend my time there with some of my dearest friends.

Also, new, incredibly ridiculous song I heard on the radio today that I think everyone deserves to hear: "LOL Smiley Face" by Trey Songz. You can see one of those Youtube videos with the lyrics here. (And you want to - trust me.)

Classes are in full swing, and it is my final and senior year here at TAMU. I've got big plans, let me tell you. Big plans.

help I _______

Possibly one of the cleverest sites I've seen, Help offers simply packaged remedies (by ChappsMalina and Little Fury) for various health maladies. Try clicking all of the packages on the site's homepage and making them disappear. Or find out what Help Remedies offers to combat boredom under the "help I'm bored" tab.

I love the look of the product and the site, and I had a blast clicking on everything!

Via Twig and Thistle

My Very Plushie Boyfriend

Updating on a Sunday again! It was yet another great weekend. As we speak my adorable boyfriend is boiling water to make us tea. He's just the best. We're watching Friends (Season 4 - The One With Chandler in a Box) and enjoying what's left of the weekend before it's back to school/class.

On Friday, we had a lovely double date night with our dear friends Jenna and Nick! Nick goes to school at UT and he came in for the weekend. We made dinner together - chicken sandwiches on the grill, corn on the cob, and brownies! Then we saw The Proposal, which was fun. Totally predictable, of course, but cute. Here are some pictures from the evening:

The adorable couple.

It was a delightful evening. We should most certainly do it again. Also, notice my attempts at being a food photographer.
Saturday was spent on running errands, watching the O.C. and Friends, and eating greasy Chinese food. We were trying to find The Time Traveler's Wife so we could read it together, but we couldn't find it anywhere! The movie is coming out on August 14th, so everyone is buying it up to read it ahead of time! It is one of my favorite books in the world, I can't wait to see it.
This week is "finals week" of Summer I. I have a Skills Test in Strength Training tomorrow and a test on Wednesday. My Educational Psychology paper is due on Wednesday as well, and my Psychology of Adjustment final is on Thursday. Then I have a whole three days before Summer II starts, hooray!
Next weekend is Kevin's birthday, America's too! Here is my favorite picture of him from this weekend, posing as one of my plushies:

I think I'm in love.

Good Weekend

This weekend Kevin and I were very productive. On Saturday we went and did a little shopping of the grocery, book, and vinyl variety.

After lunch at Blue Baker, our first stop was Barnes and Noble (of which I am always a fan). I had a specific purpose in mind - Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith. This journal is super cool. Every page gives you instructions to literally destroy it! Kevin and I both bought one so we could do them together. The first pages I did were "Color the entire page" and "Burn this page." You can view a gallery of many people's journals here.

Then we went to Office Max so I could buy some colorful pens for scrapbooking. I haven't gotten the opportunity to use them yet, but I'm very excited.

Then we went to Half Price Books. Kevin bought two records (West Side Story and something by Frank Sinatra) and the O.C. Season 2 on DVD for only 20$! Awesome deal. Good thing, too - we're burning through the first season. We only have 5 more episodes left!

Finally we went to HEB and bought groceries galore. I love food shopping. I need to learn how to make more things, though. Bleh. I do love Lean Cuisines, though.

That evening we went to dinner with some friends at Ozona before returning to the house to get our fill of the O.C. So wonderfully addictive.

Today has been a cleaning day. I completely cleaned my room and it is marvelous! Isn't it so much better when your space isn't messy? Too bad I'm too lazy to keep it this way!

I emailed my mom the other day and asked her if we happened to have a typewriter, because I've really been in the mood for one. I just love the way they look. It was perfect timing, too - she is at my grandfather's house for the weekend and he has an adorable 1958 portable Royal! And he is letting me use it. He said that as long as I want it I can have it, and I only need return it if I'm no longer using it. My mom sent me a picture -

No idea if these are the colors or not, but either way I am so excited! I cannot wait to have it.

Happy Father's Day, everyone! I called my Daddy today and he and my sister are coming to visit me soon. I am very much looking forward to it. I love him very much - he is the kind of dad that all of your friends think is really cool and he's just as silly as can be. As he would say, sometimes he "just thinks funny thoughts."

Time is going by very fast... I have a paper due in less than two weeks and it's not long before this summer session is over. I hope your weekend was great, too. What was your favorite thing you did?

Happy Weekend!

The best part about not having a job is that my weekend starts on Thursdays. We finally named Babo's Bird - its name is Cameron. Not sure if it's a boy or a girl. It might be both. Date night on Tuesday was a success. The food at Luigi's was super good - Kevin and I both had lasagna and it was really unique. We got dressed up all cute:

Time for fun things:

1. What is your favorite color?

.

1. green sea of chairs 2. Green apple 3. Green and Wet 4. The green selfportrait revisited 5. Behind the Green Door... 6. green up 7. Green, Green, Green... 8. A Green Life 9. my green illuminated way home

2. What is your current obsession?

3. What is your favorite flower?

4. Do you collect something?
I collect stickers, plushies, anything Hello Kitty, and owls

5. What inspires you?
Other's scrapbooks and minibooks, fred flare, Kevin, music

6. What are you listening to right now?

7. What are your favorite movies?

8. What's your favorite book?

9. What do you like most about yourself?
My eyes! And my sparkling personality.

10. What's your dream job?
Food photographer.

Tuesday Night Love!

I'm very excited about this evening. Kevin and I are going to work out when he gets off of work (we're so athletic right now). Then after we're going to dinner at Luigi's! We like to dress up and go to pretty restaurants. I cannot wait. I love going out and being cute.

Other fun things coming up:
- So You Think You Can Dance tomorrow and Thursday
- A do-nothing weekend
- More scrapbooking
- The end of Summer I and seven hours of class
- Baltic Cruise!

Okay, so the last two are still kind of far off. But they're still fun!

Time to go to the Rec. Yay, fitness.

The Joy of Toys (The Innocent Kind)

This weekend I went with Kevin to his parents' house in Austin. After living there for ten years, they're moving into an apartment closer to work, so he wanted to go help them pack everything. He's such a good son.

We left after he got off of work and arrived around 8.00pm. It was looking real stormy and scary, like we might get a tornado. The sky was full of clouds that looked like this:

Which I have now learned are "mammatus" clouds, only less defined as some photos I've seen, like this:

Eerie! But it pretty much didn't even rain where we were, which was fortunate.

The next day we were off on a mini-adventure. We went to Toy Joy, which, if you've never been, you should check out because it's just too fun. And lucky for me, they're an official Sanrio distributor! So I bought a few goodies for myself and Kevin bought me an Uglydoll! He's adorable. He's "Babo's Bird," but he doesn't have a name yet. I also got a Pandapple plush among other things, as you can see!

We then went to Kerby Lane for lunch and then saw The Hangover. It was... funny. But I really don't like movies where everything goes wrong and so it stressed me out too much. Then we went back to the house while Kevin packed and I played Spider Solitaire on his computer. I've won two suit solitaire twice now! It's really difficult! But I'm working on getting better.

Today we had to get up early (okay, at 9.00) and drive to Houston for our friend James's graduation party. After six years he finally got a degree! Good for him. But Houston is not fun at all. The driving stinks and it's too humid. I'd take Austin or Dallas any day, thank you. It was lots of fun, though. A bunch of friends were there and his mom made enough food for a small army. So we ate as much as we could and took the rest of it home. I only just now realized that I left it in the car. And we got back a few hours ago. Awesome.

We have since returned home and I'm avoiding homework by writing this. But it was a really fun weekend. I like spending time with the boyfriend, and he takes such good care of me. We had lots of car time, which as we all know is good for bonding (and napping). He's moving to New York City in the fall to go to grad school at Columbia. (Basically, he's mega-smart.) This is the summer to get in as much face time as I can with him before he goes far away!

This week is pretty low-key - I have a "test" in Strength Training and a bunch of reading to do. Perhaps I'll get to work more on my scrapbook and my super-kawaii stickers will arrive so I can make all my pages just a little more Asian-inspired. Hopefully there's a dinner date at Luigi's this week with Kevin as well. We like to get dressed up and show off how great we are together.

And how modest!