2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MY LOVELIES!

i hope you had a safe + wonderful new year’s eve celebration. ours was simple + low-key, which was exactly what i wanted this year. for those of you who read my personal blog, you know that i have an odd, fickle relationship with new year’s eve as a holiday in general, so i’m extra happy that it was so stress-free + satisfying this time around. i’m also happy to be spending new year’s day drinking coffee, uploading photos, watching my brother play x-box, and counting down the minutes until the 2011 NHL winter classic, which features my favorite boys this year in my favorite city. so far today has also included reflecting on the previous year, a year that started out pretty scary with my mother being diagnosed with cancer, but ended up being, overall, surprisingly fun, meaningful, inspiring, and memorable in the best ways possible. so, when i look back on 2010, i will be able to say…

…that was the year i

// discovered florence + the machine, mumford & sons, broken social scenes, laura marling, and local natives

// learned how to say “be careful!” and “climb down from” in latin

// watched the penguins go down in the 2nd round of the playoffs, and started my next season countdown far too early

// was given my very first DSLR camera, appropriately named dexter

// found out what chronic lymphocytic leukemia is

// watched a lot of dexter, BSG, 30 rock, better off ted, damages, mad men, the tudors, and united states of tara

// wrote a lot of poetry i’m actually pretty proud of

// saw my boys, the pittsburgh penguins, two rows from ice level, and two other times besides that

// maintained a good GPA + developed new academic contacts

// bought a lot of records, ballet flats, dishware, and bottles of nail polish

// had countless conversation about creative nonfiction + friendship + supernatural + hockey + psychology + the movie inception

// was lucky enough to see the swell season, bob dylan, hanson, and john mayer in concert (from pretty awesome seats, too)

// became OBSESSED with netflix (how did i ever live without it?)

// took hundreds of photos of coffee + tea, cemeteries, books, cats, shoes, clouds, and my little front porch

// turned twenty-two in my favorite place on earth: consol energy center

// reevaluated every priority i’ve ever had in life while spending countless hours in a squeaky, uncomfortable chair next to my mother’s hospital bed at the cleveland clinic

// wandered through shenandoah valley national park

// drank too many starry night shots + sang along too loudly to songs on the radio in bars on weeknights

// ate my weight in con queso, homemade risotto, and blueberry yogurt

// maintained such a lovely group of writer friends

// worked on being more flexible, brave, and even-tempered

// wasn’t lucky enough to travel very much or very far, but still managed to “go” to many new places

// gave into the smart phone craze, and bought a new laptop

// pinned down what i would like the next five years to be like, and started to make the right decisions to get myself there

// tumblrd, tweeted, and started a personal blog

// developed this blog into the super artistic explosion of random creativity + funk that it is now! (bwahahaha)

// reclaimed my status as the master of my fate, the captain of my soul

☁☁☁

i am already oozing with excitement to find out what 2011 has in store for me, my friends, and for all of you here. i am oh so happy to have “met” (most of) you all during this wildly unpredictable + wonderful, incredibly fast year. have a brilliant new year’s day!

xo Alison

obsession confession: birds + their cages

can i make a confession?

i have another minor obsession.

and it’s with anything related to birds…

{dove bobby pin // revisions design studio}{PATCH NYC // west elm}

{great & small coin purse // anthropologie}{wise guy wall art // elly nelly}

{antiqued owl // anna kiel jewelery}{chickadee paper clips // modcloth}

{gold finch rug // thomas paul}{bird in flight earrings // ruche}

❤❤❤

and their cages…

{young hearts card // the great lakes}{plywood mobile // ferm living}

{antique bird cage // soozer loser ny}{bird cage stamp set // velocity}

{fly free tee // modcloth}{aviary shower curtain // urban outfitters}

{birdcage ring // dillondesigns}{gilded birdcage tote // branchhandmade}

❤❤❤

what’s your obsession confession?

xo Alison

p.s. i’m totally handling the penguin’s defeat in stride. and by stride i mean…

waking up crying // spending the last 36hrs in sweatpants // living on carbs and chocolate // lying on the dining room floor, wrapped up in my gigantic pens blanket, with peter gabriel singing “i think it’s going to rain today” on repeat // cycling between lusting after don drapper + lee adama // listening to the saddest coldplay songs // sigh.

me + my footprints

my weekend in…

sights ::

i ❤ cheap art

hazelnut

sunday morning delight

gray // grey

me + my footprints

soap bubbles

mama + her boyfriend, admiral adama

:::::::::::::::::::::

sounds ::

{we were promised jetpacks}

:::::::::::::::::::::

musts ::

:: being wholly inspired by a friend and nurse who spent two weeks in jamaica recently to help provide medical care to the impoverished. she went with a single bag the weighted 47 pounds. when she came back it weighed 12 because she gave away most of her possessions, plus the medical supplies she was able to get passed customs. how incredible is that?

:: playing mancala with my hermano for the first time since we were kids

:: browsing the goods at baggu, soma, and spoon sisters

:: rotating between celebrating an awesome 6-3 win over montreal friday night, getting ready for the 2pm puck drop today, and trying not to panic over jordan staal’s lacerated tendon

:: making a summer reading list that includes new novels and old favorites

the adventures of huckleberry finn

the bell jar

one hundred years of solitude

garrison keillor’s pontoon

arthur rimbaud poetry

:: watching bright star and wondering what it would be like to lay in a meadow of purple flowers + fall in love with a poet, and wishing the entire movie was as good as its remarkable cinematography + art direction, which were sadly the only things i liked about the film

:: using my magenta + charcoal ultra fine sharpies to make note.cards for thursday’s history final

:: smiling because of kathy mellor’s lovely illustrations {via diana}

:: getting up early sunday morning to enjoy the damp grass, cheap coffee, and sporadic conversation about stephen hawking and jazz music with my mom

:: falling in love with marc andre fleury all over again in this video

:::::::::::::::::::::

lusts ::

{twig pencils/briones+co.}{norm 06 hanging light shade/gretel}

{white seashells clutch/eightseasons}{origami paper crane mobile/scoutholiday}

:::::::::::::::::::::

what are you up to this sunday? and what will you be reading this summer?

also, LET’S GO PENS!!!!

cheers [darlin']

Alison

upper echelon of ugly pants

it’s sunday morning and we’re covered in snow.

last night jordan and i had to shovel the driveway. i tucked my polka dot sleepwear pants into thick maroon socks and pulled my ridiculously red pajamas that are in the upper echelon of ugly pants over top. it was already getting dark and the snow was light and kept drifting in the wind from the sparkling pile making its way up the adolescent oak tree in the front yard. i couldn’t get the song muffin top from 30 rock out of my head, i couldn’t get over how quiet it was on our urban street, couldn’t stop myself from falling backwards into the snow once we had finally cleared the driveway. it’s my reward every year when we are hit with blizzard like conditions. the moment i’m done, i lean my neon orange shovel against the house and flop back fearlessly. it’s an extreme kind of peacefulness, being barricaded in snow. i barely feel the cold, just the quiet, like a womb or maybe an eggshell, encasing and reassuring in its familiarity and its armory, its childlike intuitiveness. by the time we finished it was well past the gloaming and the sky looked like the thick waxy shade of a midnight blue crayon. i wondered if there was only the streetlight to reflect off of, if you could really see how outrageous a red my pants were from an abandoned satellite somewhere up there in space. i wondered what we’re going to do once the tree branches finally grow far enough to touch the front upstairs windows with their outstretched buds  this autumn or the next. i wondered if the penguins were going to be able to get from montreal to the district of columbia when the capitol is all but closed, if there was any spice tea left in the pot, where i will be one year from now, after the next winter storm, the next obligatory snow angel.

hmm.

anyway, in other news, i finished the wonderfully addictive and fascinating and flawed battlestar galactica. there were some projectile tears. there was some frustration and disappointment and moments of brilliance. there was some beauty in the form of the music and the opera house payoff and lee “apollo” adama’s general being. i was wired for a while afterwards and ended up staying up way too late, discussing everything with mama and cleaning the bathroom at 2am with a ‘i need to take out my chagrin and sadness’ fervor, and  listening to florence + the machine.

oh, florence + the machine. i may be a little late to the party, but i can’t remember the last time i loved an album by a unknown [to me] artist this much, this quickly. a couple nights ago i stumbled across her cover of beyonce’s halo. it’s nothing short of incredible. i spent the rest of the night scavenging my music blogs for the rest of her album lungs and i haven’t been able to go more than a couple hours without listening to the whole damn thing. i was reminded of the first time i heard the format’s interventions and lullabies, not in the style of music, but in how much i immediately connected to and cherished the songs and musicality and marvelled at the voice. it was like the first time i saw pride & prejudice in that tiny movie theatre in canton, read a library paperback copy of billy collin’s sailing alone around the room, smelled chanel coco mademoiselle, heard an acoustic version of mraz’s the remedy, had a glass of cheap riesling, saw ryan malone and the penguins play. that yes, this is for me, this is definitely for me feeling. which is what i need right now. like green day and boy meets world and NHL hockey, the lord of the rings cast commentaries and skinny vanilla lattes and newsies and alanis morissette before, it’s comforting to have something to hold on to, revel in, when you need someplace to hide, like a kid underneath a blanket with a flashlight and florence + the machine.

boop bop beep. i think i’m going to have breakfast for lunch.

let’s go pens!

cheers [darlin']

Alison

and the smooth jazz

i swear, it is my destiny to be sitting in a gray, low back chair with squeaky faux leather and a wide, uncomfortable base, keeping quiet and minding my own business, only to have some gnarly looking patient in a wheel chair roll right next to me, of all the places in the waiting room, of all the gin joints, yada yada. i don’t want to sound like a squeamish little girl, but c’mon, gods of karma. you had your fun in the ER waiting room with the vomit/moaning escapade of 2010 and it produced one of the funniest moments of my life. this, on the other hand, is overkill.

blecck. sigh. ugh. etc.

besides being in an enclosed space with infectious disease patients, forgetting my earphones, and having wayne brady making deals and giving out hawaiian vacations to members of a screaming audience on the TV on the wall, things have been pretty alright lately. more than that, actually. last night, i had a much welcome moment of total contentment. i was snuggled under the sea foam blanket of love, a [free, thanks to a lovely barista teacher extraordinaire bff] java chip frappe in my stomach for the first time in ages, two new gorgeous floral patterned cut out beaded tops waiting in my room, three papers under my belt and only one more to go [for right now], and in no hurry to do anything but watch old rafe and alison clips and start battlestar galactica 4.5 and make a late night grilled cheese sandwich and stay under that blanket as though my life depended on it. and that’s when i felt it. contentment. i wasn’t thinking about yesterday or today or next tuesday. i was nowhere else but in that simple, warm moment. i downloaded some phoenix and seabear and old acoustic regina spektor. i let jonsi + alex’s “happiness” wash over me and put the tallest man on earth’s “i won’t be found” piano daytrotter version on repeat. i felt the tangible relief of everything being okay for now, or at least a new kind of okay in comparison to how things have been. it’s like i’ve had a cramp in my leg for the last three and a half weeks, and the smallest release of its tension letting up felt like a bottomless well of succor and calmness and addictive pleasantness. and the fact that i’m still able to sustain that okay-ness after getting up after five hours of sleep to pull on some clothes and sit in this hospital waiting room with the smells and the smooth jazz and the reality of why we’re here, is some kind of progress i’m extremely grateful for.

this is my to-do list for this weekend ::

:: watch the pens twice in two days after four full days of hollow, game-less nights

:: prepare for the fact that i am one. week. away. from the best john mayer tickets i’ve ever head, which not to sound braggy, is really saying something

:: watch the latest supernatural

:: spend some time at panera, refilling my cup with hazelnut coffee while i work on my tudors and stuart britian essay

:: finish BSG. sob. sob. thud.

:: make collages in my moleskine with magazine clippings and transparent scotch tape

:: live on seedless grapes and orange based tea

:: trudge through shakespeare’s henry VII

:: polish my nails some obnoxious shade of red

:: start to formulate a plan for my summer studies

cheers [darlin']

Alison