sunday morning

Morning Run. Well, morning run/walk. I was stopped by frequent stretching sessions, almost rolling my ankle on the snow, desires to walk and take pictures, and an almost disastrous run-in with a cross-country skier. On the Prairie Path. Ummm? I didn't ask questions.

I have a lot on my mind this morning (thus the outdoor run), and I can't really write about it eloquently enough here without sounding whiny and self-obsessed, so I just want to quote some scripture that just totally gives me comfort and peace and joy right now. And I'm using The Message. Oh, yes, I am.

I used to hate The Message, because I just thought it was corny and too... something. But after hearing someone I really respect use it frequently - and speak about why he likes it - it's definitely growing on me. This verse, in particular, is so real to me, so I wanted to share.

Now read this and look at the beautiful pictures of nature above and just soak it in.

_________

"Listen, God! Please, pay attention! Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries? King - God, I need your help.

Every morning

you'll hear me at it again.

Every morning

I lay out the pieces of my life

on your altar

and watch for fire to descend."

-Psalm 5:3

my favorite oscar fashions

In preparation for tomorrow night's Oscars - and because I'm lazy today and feel like trolling the internet all day for pretty pictures - I've compiled a list of my favorite Oscar dresses of all time. And by "all time" I mean "mosly the late 90s and 2000s" since the photo selections from earlier Oscar ceremonies are sparse.

With the amount of money, fame, and access to anything that famous actresses have, I probably shouldn't congratulate any of these people for dressing well. It'd be like someone writing a blog post about me when I wear clothes from Target. Well, yes, that's what my lifestyle allows me to do, so... thank you very much. It's not that hard for me. But, since it's so fun to look at pretty pictures (I'm not even going to disclose how long I've been "researching" this morning), here's my list:

Barbra Streisand 1968

Yes, Barbra. Because she's now so famous and established in her career, she wears weird crap all the time because she's like, "whatever. I'm BARBRA STREISAND. I'm not trying to impress you people." But back in the 60's, she was still working her way up, and thus still tried to wear things that fit properly. The hairstyle is a little crazy, but I love the disco-fabulousness of her ensemble - the gold stiping, the fro, the choker, the flowing necklace - love it.

Racquel Welch - 1972

I love this dress on Raquel Welch. I love it bright blue color, fun 70s print (it's so 70s because this photo was literally taken in the 70s), and style.

Goldie Hawn - 1973

I love Goldie Hawn's style. She always looks fun and sun-kissed and beachy. She's just this funky free-spirit who wear flowers in her hair and drinks wine with a blank stare on her face and I love it. Plus, I like seeing the way movie stars dressed before stylists were a thing. Would a stylist today let a famous actress go to the Oscars with a fake rose on top of her head? Absolutely not, but that's what makes this look so fun. And say what you want about Hawn-spawn Kate Hudson - but mother and daughter always look fun, cute and happy at red carpet events.

Audrey Hepburn - 1988

That's right - I'm including a dress from the 80's in my best dressed list. Audrey Hepburn is so well-known for her classic, timeless style. So, I love the fact that her dress from 1988 is loud, bold, and 80's-tastic, while still managing to be classy, fun, and pretty.

Kim Basinger- 1998

Seeing this dress was one of my first Oscar memories. I'm pretty sure I only got into the Oscars in the late 90s because of my huge crush on Matt Damon. Due to its R-rating, I wasn't allowed to watch Good Will Hunting but that didn't stop me from decorating my locker with pictures of him. Anyway, I love this dress on Kim - I love the color - I'm a huge mint fan - and the pretty, classy neckline. Lovely! Kim Basinger, become famous again so we can see more of your pretty dress choices.

Cate Blanchett - 2000

Cate Blanchett always dresses well, but I especially love her look at the 2000 Oscars. It's sleek and sexy and a little daring. I love it.

Charlize Theron - 2000

This may be my favorite Oscar look of all time. It's old-school Hollywood but still sleek and modern. Plus, she's Charlize F-ing Theron, so she pretty much looks gorgeous wearing anything.

Jennifer Lopez - 2001

Fact: When your most impressive movie credit is something called Monster-in-Law, and you were one of the stars of Gigli, you probably don't deserve to show your face at the Oscars. But, she's frickin' J-Lo, so of course she's there every year. I love her look from 2001 - the contrast of the gauzy top and satin bottom is beautiful, and I love the colors. Sure, she could've put a bra on, but other than that, this look is gorgeous.

Angelina Jolie - 2001

Angelina's style is very hit-or-miss for me. Sometimes she picks really beautiful outfits, but sometimes she wears a vile of blood as a necklace and forgets to brush her hair. So, you never know. I loved her choice of a clean, crisp white pantsuit in 2001. She just looks effortless - like it only took her 20 minutes to get ready (probably not true).

Cameron Diaz - 2002

Cameron Diaz is a terrible actress who should never, ever be invited to an event that honors greatness in film. And that's an understatement. But damn it all if the woman doesn't know how to put together a great red carpet look. I typically love what she wears to events like this, but especially love her 2002 choice. It's silky, boho, sort of grandma-y but also young and funky. I love the fact that she always looks beachy on the red carpet, too.

Sienna Miller - 2004

I found out two fun facts about Sienna Miller today during my googling: 1. she was famous in 2004, and 2. she used to be a brunette. To this day I've never seen her act in a movie and couldn't even name one movie she's ever been in, but I'm glad she randomly went to the 2004 Oscars, because I love this look:

Salma Hayek - 2005

Salma Hayek, in a tight, hip-hugging, cleavage-y dress that manages to make her look soft, feminine, and beautiful as opposed to cheap and boobs-all-over-y. A fine accomplishment by Prada.

Hilary Swank - 2005

Ahhh yes. I'm a sucker for backless dresses. I love the contrast of the high neckline and the deep V in the back. Gorgeous.

Michelle Williams - 2006

The beauty in this outfit isn't the dress itself (although it IS gorgeous), but in the genius combination of the necklace, mustard color, hairstyle, and lipstick. Did I just say "genius" in reference to putting together an outfit? I'm Rachel Zoe now. Whatever. I could erase it, but "genius" was literally the first word that came to mind and I'm leaving it. Anyway - dress, necklace, lip color: love it.

Lauren Hutton - 2007

Not exactly your traditional Oscar gown, but I love the combination of a casual piece - the mint green top that looks like it came from Gap - with a formal piece - the satin and tulle ball skirt. And I love adding another texture to the mix, with the leather bag. She perfectly walks the line between funky, pretty individual style and Mary-Kate-Olsen-bag-lady.

Portia de Rossi -2007

Ah, Portia. What a good-looking woman. Dave and I both have celebrity crushes on her. Although, hello, I obviously have a better chance with her since I'm a woman. I pretty much love anything she wears, ever, and totally would've worn her wedding dress if I could afford Zac Posen. I'm not sure why she was ever invited to the Oscars, but that's neither here nor there. Her 2007 dress was elegant yet funky, which I love.

Maggie Gyllenhaal - 2007

Another navy and black dress. I can't help it. I love navy and black separately, and I love them together. And Maggie Gyllenhaal is just awesome.

Rachel Weisz - 2007

I love Rachel Weisz. She's one of those people that I always hope shows up to awards shows just so I can see what she wears. Her 2007 dress is probably my favorite. I especially loved the details - her necklace, the neckline, and the train.

Tilda Swinton 2009

Tilda gets a lot of flack in the Judgment community (you know - bloggers, Joan Rivers, the hosts of The View) for her fashion choices, but I just love what she wore in 2009. I love the combination of beige and black, and love the way the dress falls on her.

Matt Damon's wife - 2010

The thing I respect most about Matt Damon's wife is that she hasn't tried to be an "actress" yet. She's just like, "yeah I'm a normal person who's now insanely rich and famous and has connections in Hollywood, but I'm not going to fool myself into thinking I can act." (I'm looking at you, Kim Kardashian.) I love her soft, pretty, flowy, preggo dress from last year:

Tattoo Time

Yesterday was a day of firsts and lasts. The last day in my old office (we're moving a few miles away) and my first tattoo.

Dave and I drove to some shady-looking place next to "massage parlors" and I prepared to allow a total stranger to permanently alter my body.

Dave and I both got inked (yes, I said "inked" and yes, I know I'm a loser) - Mine: "1 John 4:7-12" - His: "God is love" in Greek.

Why, yes, we are white, evangelical, middle class, liberal arts-educated, twenty-somethings. How ever did you guess?

For real, though, we are very excited about these new, permanent developments. We are not yet ready to buy a home or have children - uhhhh WAY to permanent at this point. While I can just put a cardigan on if I choose not to expose the tattoo, unfortunately, we cannot just "put a cardigan" over a child if we're like, "uhh CRAP. We're gonna be raising this kid for HOW MANY more years?"

I mean, we do want to have kids at some point, and maybe even own a home (we're less certain about that one), but for the time being, we're taking smaller steps into permanent-life-choices-land.

Before we got married, Dave and I talked about getting tattoos on the under-side of our ring fingers, but quickly found that that's not a good idea because apparently tattoos in that area eventually just rub off. So then I thought I should get a tattoo on the front of my finger like Beyonce, but then I realized that, unlike Beyonce:

a. I'm not black

b. I still have to be concerned about keeping "normal people at normal jobs areas" (ie face/neck/hands/lower arms/legs) tattoo-free. No tear-drops on the face, no initials on the fingers. Got it.

For real, though, that's cool, right? Hidden, of course, by her ginormous ring, but cool nevertheless.

Anyway, I've never really been morally against tattoos, I just never really wanted to get one unless it had a really special, emotional meaning to me. Which, I think, has saved me from ever getting some crazy tattoo that I once thought was cool but now am embarrassed by.

So, we eventually decided to get tattoos referencing 1 John 4:7-12 since that's a passage we really focused on in preparing to get married, and it's the verse the pastor preached on during our wedding ceremony. It's not really like a "life verse" but it is something we focused on in trying to learn about marriage and how we wanted to live as husband and wife. Since we're planning to wear these wedding rings for the rest of our lives as a symbol, we thought it would be special to also have something permanent on us to reference the love that God has called us to live out within our marriage, and in life in general.

So that's the meaning behind our choices. Now onto the weird experience of actually going to the tattoo parlor.

First of all, I was very nervous about the experience. Not really about the pain - just about the whole experience of going to the tattoo parlor and going through with it.

Thankfully, the guy who tattooed us was really nice and made me feel at ease. It also helped that, while I was getting my shoulder blade done (a relatively pain-free place to have a tiny little knife repeatedly stabbing you. I think that's the idea. Still not totally sure what was happening back there), I was facing a young guy (I'm guessing he was about 19 judging from the fact that he looked super young and didn't have enough money to get the tattoo he originally wanted when he walked into the parlor 15 minutes earlier) getting a tattoo down the side of his stomach. YIKES. Why there? I don't know.

Was he getting a tattoo of old-English block lettering of his last name? Of course. Was he also a teenage white guy who's probably from a middle-class family in the suburbs and wants to seem like he's a punk? Obviously. Why even ask that.

We're all so predictable. I wish the tattoo artists would try to guess what each patron wanted, instead of asking. I mean, seriously, I bet they could guess correctly most

of the time.

Anyway, I know it may be predictable, but the thing is - I kind of enjoy having this on my body now! I love it. And I like the fact that, although it is - on some levels -superficial, it's still a permanent reminder (and "proclamation" when I'm in a strapless dress) of God's love for us, my love for Him, and the commitment that Dave and I have made. So, I like that.

Here's a few pictures of me being a total badass who's like BRING THE PAIN (jk I was shaking due to fear and also the Monster I drank on the way to the tattoo parlor), and of our tattoos when we were all done:

Mom Jeans

Inspired by my recent visit to H&M, it's time for a new series of posts I call:

"Things SNL made fun of that are now actually popular"

Let's go back to 2003 on SNL (and an amazing cast of women, if I may say so) -

MOM JEANS! You must remember this. If not, watch the full, glorious sketch here.

And now, let's take a trip back to the present day. A time in which young people apparently were too young to remember the above sketch -

These are literal pants I saw in H&M. Here's my inner monologue as I was walking through that store yesterday: "cute dress... I like those pants... cute shoes... pretty skirt... ibbidibbiERRRR (sound of record scratching) WHAT?!"

The baggy legs, the tapered ankles, the elastic around BOTH the waistband and the ankles, the insanely long crotch seam... I just... what?

Happy Weekend!

Yesterday, after an extremely long week at work, and a very stressful Friday (during which I narrowly avoided crying at my office not once, but twice), I was SO ready for the weekend.

Luckily, Dave and I had planned a night out in lovely Chicago. Our friend Josh got us a night in a really nice hotel so we decided to go last night.

It was AWESOME and beautiful and a lovely break from everyday life out in the burbs. And the temperature was NOT freezing, which was a huge bonus.

We were able to get a room upgrade, which meant that we had a living room area and an extra bathroom. A half bath, for, like, if we had company over or something? I'm not sure. I've never been in a hotel room with more than one bathroom... not sure what the point was.

We were welcomed into the hotel by this lovely little treat in the living room. Four types of chocolate AND hand-written poetry. So sweet.

Here's a picture of the living area, including the mini bar that we didn't use because we wanted to still be able to pay our bills this month:

And a couple more pics, including this morning's delicious breakfast:

There were also TVs in the bathroom mirrors, which was ridiculous. We got ready last night while watching the A Charlie Brown Valentine. Well, more like listening to it, since I was more focused on putting my makeup on, as I didn't want to go out looking like this:

That whole last superfluous paragraph was really just an excuse to post that picture.

We also saw the following picture in the hallway of our floor:

Just looks like a funky painting, right? Let's zoom in...

I mean, this is just genius. Bravo, whoever painted this. You are officially the world's greatest artist. No one else should even try. (Office Olympics reference. Not my own originally phrasing, although I wish it were.) I mean, what do you say to a painting like that? It's just absurd, and yet, I love it. If I could afford it, I'd buy it. For real.

Anyway, in addition to pretending to be high-rollers who could regularly afford to stay in hotels like that, we also went out to an amazing dinner at Pane Caldo, a one-minute walk from the hotel.

It was kind of a pricey dinner, but it actually ended up being cheap because we used some of Dave's gambling winnings. He's allowed to keep making bets until he loses one. Last year, he bet a co-worker from Wisconsin that the Bears would have a better regular season than the Packers. Although the Packers won the Super Bowl, the Bears had a better regular season record, meaning we got a FANTASTIC deal on a great dinner. That dinner was, by far, the #1 reason I wanted the Bears to have a good season. Super Bowl, Schmuper Bowl. I don't care about them winning - I just want to know: will I get an amazing dinner out of this?

I had the cannelloni, Dave had the spaghetti, and we both fought over the grilled calamari appetizer. Excellent.

A lovely weekend, and it's only halfway over. YAY. Now off the watch some Lights Out with the hubs.

Measurement Conversion Fail

Last night, Dave and I ventured out to accomplish a couple of missions:

1. print some wedding pictures to hang in the house

2. frame a print we bought in Spain

I don't want to become one of those people who just hangs wedding pictures all over their house, but, let's face it - I'm a bad photographer and I rarely take pictures, so the 294 professional wedding pictures we have are like a gold mine of cheap wall decorations. Why buy expensive art when I can print pictures cheaply and put them in frames I already own?

I've heard a lot of people say that printing wedding pictures is crazy expensive, which makes me think that none of these people have ever heard of Walgreen's. 20 prints, $13, 10 minutes. That's all it took. I thought we'd at least have to wait an hour to have them printed, but for just 4 cents more, we could have them printed immediately. It's a miracle of modern drug-store services!

Here's part of the finished decor:

I've had most of those frames for a long time... probably since high school, but I still love the way they all look together.

Moving on to our second mission of the night - framing a print.

When we were in Barcelona, we went to this AMAZING Gaudi apartment building called La Pedrera and bought a really great print of the building. I couldn't find a good picture online, but it's basically a picture of this:

We bought it for about 20 Euros, or about $100 (it seemed). I naively thought that we'd easily be able to find a $10 frame back home, and voila, we'd have a pretty print hanging up. And then I'd think, "we only spent $10 on this!" because I wouldn't count the Euros, because once I was back in the US, I'd be like, "Euros?! Out of sight, out of mind. It's basically Monopoly money," because that's the way I vacation.

I know there are a lot of good arguments for having a global standard for measurement systems, but I've never really understood the big issue. Who cares? You go to another country and they use kilometers instead of miles? Figure it out. A 5k is 3.1 miles (that's common knowledge, right?), so just do a little math to figure out the conversion. Or, just don't worry about it, because you're probably on vacation anyway.

Well, I now see - through a very superficial problem - why we really need a global standard. Because when you buy a print in Spain that is 68 x 98 cm, it's near impossible to find a cheap framing solution. And THIS is the "problem" that finally brought me to that conclusion. It's sad, I know. And also, this is sarcasm for anyone who doesn't know me well.

I never really been into getting prints custom-framed, or "doing things the right way," mostly because it always costs too much money and I irrationally think I can accomplish the same, high-quality end product for way less money. But, after searching for a cheaper solution, it seemed like it might be the best bet, so we headed to Hobby Lobby to check out pricing.

Speaking of conversions, here's a little equation for you:

68 cm x 98 cm = 26.7716 inches x 38.5826 inches = not a real size in the US = $134.18 to buy a custom frame

Uhhh, no thanks, Hobby Lobby. You're supposed to be a Christian business, and that is called "ripping people off."

Or maybe not. I don't really know. As I mentioned, I never custom frame anything.

When we first started looking into prices for framing, we considered just buying a frame from Europe since 68 cm x 98 cm is a standard size there. We quickly dismissed it, thinking it'd be way too expensive, but now it's looking like a pretty good option.

Or maybe I'll just buy a too-small frame at TJ Maxx and cut down the poster to make it fit. Kidding. Kind of.

Anyone have a good, cheap solution for this? Is $134 insane for a custom framing? Keep in mind, it's essentially a poster - it's not fine art or anything.

In other news, I walked into the study to write this post this morning, and saw a couple of magazines I'd received in the mail yesterday. I laughed when looking at the covers juxtaposed together, because the combination of them is so stereotypically... "these are magazines that a person like myself would receive" -

I know that being tempted by... "enticing" magazines is more of a stereotypically male problem, but let me tell you, for a girl who's trying to eat healthier and is stuck in sub-zero temperatures right now, getting magazines with pictures of a beach in Greece and brownies is probably not good for me.

I will read them anyway.

It's Blizzard Time

So apparently there's some sort of blizzard coming. Slash, it's already here. I have no idea. I haven't looked outside since 2 p.m.

If my friends' facebook statuses are any indication, literally every American who doesn't live out west or down south is staying home tomorrow. Am I? Maybe. I'll be informed via text by 6:15 tomorrow. Which will give me just enough time to drive the 10 miles to work by 8:30 a.m., if needed.

For tonight, I'm hanging out with Dave on the couch - he's literally 8 feet away from me right now, but we're both laying down on the same couch. U-shaped couches are ridiculous. OK, moving on. I just can't keep my U-shaped couch obsession at bay. They weasel their way into every post. Here's my SAT prep hint for the day:

This blog : U-shaped couch references :: Seinfeld : Superman

If you're one of those people who's snowed in, here's some enjoyable reading to get you through the next day (two days? three days?).

And, the most enjoyable thing on the internet today (that's a fact - I read the whole internet today - all of it), courtesy of Daniel:

And with that, it's time for Office reruns.