Not quite as short as shorts but not quite as long as pants

Pedal Pushers (for bicycling)
Capris (Grace Kelly was one of the first to wear these on the island of Capri)
High Waters (to wade in water)
Clam Diggers (for harvesting clams)
Knickerbockers (think old baseball players)
Manpris (common term used for men)
Bloomers (variations of  womens bottoms, including undergarments)
Breeches (men's bottoms, very billowy)

Merriweather

Passive Aggressive

I hate passive aggressive street signs. "One Way" Oh yeah? Okay so you do you want me to turn around or something? Am I not allowed to enter? Also I dislike "Lane ends in ____ feet" Right, so should I get over? Is this my last chance? What is going to happen? It should say "GET THE FUCK OVER BECAUSE THIS LANE IS GOING TO CEASE TO EXIST" or maybe without the profanity, but seriously who came up with this shit. Tell me what you want me to do, I cannot read your mind. And I know what you are thinking, I am woman and we are the damn queens of being passive aggressive, guilty as charged. However I am trying my very hardest to say what I mean. But men probably came up with those damn street signs.

Merriweather

Moms

At the office that I work at there are moms everywhere, all very sweet and nurturing but by gollie if something is up they can smell it in the air as you walk past them. They just know. They have a crazy sense about these things. So when I am feeling down they are there to try and bring me back up whether they smother me with hugs, silly compliments or just a shoulder to cry on; it's kind of nice having a mom wherever I go.

I don't know if I will ever be a Mom but I have always certainly been the motherly one with every group of friends.
Merriweather

Teased by your blouse Spit out by your mouth

I'm already feeling nostalgic...

Some of my favorite Chicago things:

summer in chicago (nothing compares)

music in the park 

myopic books 

orange (orange rosemary french toast) 

sprinkles cupcakes 

the anthropologie on chicago ave. 

walking under the lights of the chicago theatre at night 

the blackstone (interior decorations)

the top of the harold washington library 

the flat iron building 

riding the fine arts building elevators 

the double door dressing rooms 

the art institute free days 

hollywood beach 

saturday night at roscoe's 

the old mailbox in columbia's 624 michigan building 

rush street 

hollywood mirror

vogue fabrics in evanston
fishman's fabrics 

the newsstand off the main st. purple line stop 

the great porches and balconies and rooftops 

the shoe department in belmont army 

the starbucks on harrison 

looking at the skyline from the museum campus 

looking at the skyline from the roosevelt bridge

looking at the skyline from the end of navy pier  

the new art supply store on wabash 

the brown elephant
long walks and cigarettes 

the salvation army off grand

goose island 312 

fox and obel vanilla latte 

standing room only 

walking down and up michigan avenue 

halloween house parties 

watching the sunrise on the lake 

playing in the face fountains 

the smell of the first snowfall 

This city will always have a huge chunk of my heart and soul...

Medusa 

Dad's "Room"

My father has several spaces to call his own. He has his bedroom, he has his office, he has his bedroom at the group home where he sleeps four days a week and he has his car no matter which particular one he has that day it is guaranteed to be "his". Along with these rooms he has "closets". He has his trunk or the bed of the truck, he has his double door closet at home, he has his closet at the group home and then he has his closet at work which is actually the coat closet. He has claimed all these spaces and uses them well. I think a room defines your character.

When I was younger and would visit my father at work I remember having to strategically maneuver my body around mounds of paper and filing cabinets just to sit down in his chair. And forget about trying to find the keyboard and the mouse to pull up solitaire. And it is still this way and always will be. And I like it this way, because this is the way I work. It is organized in a way only he understands which is how I do it. "Organized chaos" someone once described the mess I had on the floor.

Merriweather

and I cannot fight the fact that I am my father's daughter. We make everything our own, he bring in our shit and it just throws up every which way. You can tell who we are and probably a few things about us

Medusa

Happy Fucking Birthday Other Half.

I miss you terribly and I hope your birthday concert (cough cough, BACKSTREET BOYS) is awesome. Please get home safely and don't talk to people with missing teeth or large bags that may contain guns and such.

LOVE YOU,
Merriweather

love and the apple store

*Actual photo of me taken in the Apple store 

I never bought into the whole prince charming thing (the only Disney movie I've ever enjoyed is Beauty and the Beast). I have  never second guessed kissing a frog(gross) or thought a man would return my shoe because i was a careless loser without a watch.  I do believe in love and fate and all of that stuff but I do not expect my hair to twirl around in the wind when our lips first touch.  I do not need gifts or the reassuring "okigottagoiloveyou" phone thingy, however,  there is one thing I would enjoy... I would like you to tell me that I am pretty in the Apple store.


Medusa

Our House

Let me start with the fact that I am an observer; I pay attention. I like knowing what is up and how things go. As a kid my bestest friends house was very different from mine. It was always clean,  things were in their place and there weren't any projects covering the kitchen table preventing us from eating dinner as a family but come to think of it we didn't eat as a family nor did we eat at the table very often. I am not saying these things are bad or that I would change anything but what I am thinking of today is adding little touches.

We never had candy dishes sitting around, so whenever I would see a candy dish in another home I could control myself. Sometimes I didn't even really like what the candy was I just wanted it because it was there and I never had it.


We were also the kind of house that only had kleenex when we were sick. There was never a box on the back of the toilet or anywhere else in bathroom. And by gollie I like having kleenex around. I usually blow my nose every time I get out of the bath or shower.

Ever need something to read while sitting on the toilet? That is a yes for everyone. We never EVER had anything to read in the bathroom so I reverted to reading the ingredients and labels of everything and anything that I could reach (this is where a box of kleenex would come in handy).

These sound like silly little things BUT these are things I have noticed and like. : ) I just need to buy some candy tomorrow!

Merriweather

Muffins

I looked through some really hilarious and lovely photos of my friend's parents today. I told his papa bear there were some pretty great ones and he responded with "Back then I was a stud muffin, now I'm just all muffin" Hahaha hells yeah. There is nothing wrong with a little bit of muffin.

I love looking through old photos, its fantastic. Maybe you should bust out those dusty photo albums that are in need of some sunlight because they have been hanging out in the basement for years, maybe even decades. Just do it, you will probably laugh your ass off because you are bound to find something inappropriate. Plus you probably look just like your parents when they were younger. Same facial expressions and everything.

Merriweather

101 Things...

A fellow lovely designer gave me a book titled "101 Things I Learned in Fashion School" and it is simply fantastic. And it is so accurate:

#13 Cotton is a fiber, not a fabric


#14 Satin is a weave, not a fabric


#29 Rules for buttoning a man's jacket
       Two buttons: Always button the top, never button the bottom
       Three buttons: Sometimes button the top, always button the middle, never button the last

#47 Simple clothes aren't simple to design


#55 Two ways to disappoint a design instructor
        Do exactly what the instructor says
        Don't do what the instructor says

Merriweather

SAVE THE DATE!!!!

My entire life I have dreamed about the day I could throw an epic party.  It's pretty much my only long term goal.  I just want to throw ONE epic party.  Definitely Marie Antoinette style, definitely a complete waste of money.  I have started to plan this party because, you know, I'm like totally going to be famous soon... It will be an invite only event, everything will be paid for, everything will be available.  Everyone will camp in lovely cloth tents on hundreds of pillows.  Champagne will be flowing and there will be music everywhere.  The food will be strange and wonderful and everyone will be dressed in a lovely whimsical costume.

This is my dream.  Save the date...
Medusa

Learning new languages

For the past month I have been living with my grandparents until I find a job/apartment.  My grandpa is full blooded Irish and my grandma is full blooded Italian.  Their relationship is bound together by their bickering.  They have an entirely different language...

Grandma language:

Tex Mex = Text Messaging
Steak = Steak N Shake
Tavern = Bar
Zink = Sink

Grandpa language:

Crazy Horse the furnace guy = My dad's friend/ our neighbor
That sissy girl college =  any liberal arts college


Medusa

Favorites

This is one of my favorite photos of all time:

Halston (fashion designer), Bianca Jagger (fashion icon), Jack Haley Jr., (Tin Man from Wizard of OZ), Liza Minelli and Michael Jackson at Studio 54.

Merriweather

Lists

I am a list maker and I come from a long line of list makers. This is my summer list but don't be alarmed it is nothing to worry about, some of these things are nothing you to me but man oh man they are not things I ever do.

Dance in public
Sing at the top of my lungs with someone present
Kiss a stranger
Do something spontaneous
Make something wonderful
Flash someone while in a car
Scrape my knees
Stay up all night
Change a tire
Check the oil
Make a chair
Drink espresso
Dance the night away
Scream off a cliff
Jump off a cliff
Sit and do nothing
Make a new swim suit
Eat something new
Don't be shy
Just do it and by it, don't chicken out but try it out first

This here is a list written by Johnny Cash courtesy of Medusa:

How fantastic right?
Merriweather

Hallelujah

My Father's Desk Decoration:

Merriweather

Good Marketing

They fucking hit the nail on the head. Do I want to buy this car? Yes. Why? Because if I own it maybe I can get a lumberjack too. Yes please and thank you very much.

Merriweather

Outfits

Feeling grumpy? Or sad? Or just unclean? Change your outfit! Sometimes I am down in the dumps and putting on something different puts me in a whole other mood. Try it, see how it goes.

Merriweather

Scusi

My mother and I went to this cute and wonderfully delicious restaurant called Scusi in Saint Paul for dinner this evening. I was talking about the beautiful flowers at the wedding I attended this weekend with my sister. Then we brought up what kind of flowers my cousin wants for her wedding and how everything has been done before so of course I brain storm and have come up with the perfect wedding bouquet! Cactus. Think about it, how cool would that be? Maybe not throwing the bouquet  though (maybe a different succulent would work better) for those poor single ladies. But seriously how fucking funny would it be walking down an aisle (I picture mine outside) with a cactus in your hands? So I am telling this to my mother as her food arrives and the lovely gentleman is grating fresh parmesan onto her dish and he keeps going and going because we are in the midst of laughing hysterically about the idea of a cactus bouquet. A little extra parmesan never hurt anybody.

Merriweather

Stores

I am pretty sure every day I am wearing something that is either from Kohl's, Gap or Target

Merriweather

Puppy Crazy.

I am crazy about puppies right now. I check the humane society daily and bookmark puppies i can't adopt. I look on craigslist.  I just google "cute puppies."  I'm obsessed and I need help.  I have my own puppy but she's technically my family puppy so they won't let me have her even though we're obsessed with each other.  As soon as I get a job and sign a lease I'm getting a pup of my own. Any of these will do : )

Medusa