Wrap up

I just can't get the sequin Juicy Couture necklace out of my mind, so I have been searching for a more affordable version this evening. To my dismay, nothing matches Juicy. However, I did find some fabulous baubles from Newport News. I have never actually ordered anything from them before, but they are so J.Crew right now that I might have to give it a try.

J.Crew or Newport?

J.Crew or Newport?

J.Crew or Newport?

J.Crew or Newport?

J.Crew or Newport?

J.Crew or Newport?

J.Crew or Newport?

On another note, Anthropologie almost does Juicy.

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

Have. to. have. for. holiday. season.

• 1. Son of John, Brooklyn Sequin Scarf, $61.50 (on sale!)
• 2. Son of John, Heidi Sequin Tank with Racer Back, $177.10 (on sale!)
• 3. Nili Lotan Sequin "Emma" Top, $495.00
• 4. Cynthia Steffe Banded-Waist Sequin Mini Skirt, $195.00
• 5. JCrew Glimmer Pocket Cardigan, $98.00
• 6. Armani Exchange Sequin Trim Shorts, $78.00

• 1. Lara Bohinc Sequined Knot Earring, $308.00
• 2. Diane von Furstenberg Sequin-Stripe Tank, $198.00
• 3. Juicy Couture Sequin Drama Bib Necklace, $228.00
• 4. Anne Taylor Kylea Sequin Tank Top, $85.00
• 5. Jo No Fui YOOX Shorts, $235.00
• 6. Express Dreamweight Cotton Long Tank- Sequin Bottom

Color me pretty

I have sort of always wished that I had synesthesia. Synesthetes perceive certain words or letters as colors, and sometimes certain words, days, and numbers have distinct personalities and are viewed three dimensionally. I might be partially synesthetic, or maybe just a wanna-be, but when I'm laying in bed at night or have my eyes closed in a quiet room, and then hear a sudden sound, colors and patterns flash in front of my eyes. This probably happens to everybody, but let's just pretend I'm special. Anyway, these were my thoughts when I saw Rachel Berger's fun project "100 Colors, 100 Writings, 100 Days." Every day for one hundred days, beginning on October 30, 2008, Rachel picked a paint chip and responded to it with a memory.

07 Lipstick

What’s the difference between Sarah Palin and the next vice president of the United States? Lipstick.

23 Pale Orchid
She was the best reader in third grade. She knew it. We all knew it.

If we were lucky, we had a thing we were best at. Josh was the best swimmer. Michael was the best at math. Liora had the best clothes. I was the tallest. Being tallest meant I was often line leader, asked to reach things, mistaken for a fourth grader. But my superlative was born of dumb luck. Reading was a real skill. And I hated her for it.

She read in a smug, fluid sing-song, rarely bothered keying her inflection to aspects of the content, ignored most punctuation. Speed and precision were it. One afternoon, her turn came to read from a text about the tropical rainforest. “The tropical rain forest is a forest of tall trees in a region of year-round warmth. An average of 50 to 260 inches of rain falls yearly.” etc, etc. It poured out of her in an unrelenting cascade of perfect. “Some of the better-known epiphytes include ferns, lichens, mosses, cacti, bromeliads, and orchids.” Wait, did she just say orCHids? The corners of my mouth turned up in a terrible, triumphant grimace. But it’s or-Kids.

I mouthed the word. Meanwhile, she stumbled. She knew something had gone horribly wrong, but it was too late.

57 Cool Melon
Only three times in its hundred-year history has the Crayola company changed the name of a crayon. Prussian Blue became Midnight Blue in 1958 and Indian Red was renamed Chestnut in 1999, both in response to requests from educators. In 1962, the company voluntarily changed Flesh to Peach, partially in response to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

Nothing gold can stay...

Come back weekend, you were fun...

This weekend I:

*Enjoyed a lot of cheap but delicious Trader Joe's red wine, TV, and a yummy spiced candle

*Treated my parents to the Chicago culinary experience- Hot Doug's for lunch and Sweet Mandy B's for dinner

*Watched the Notre Dame game at a really fun Notre Dame bar

*Spent Saturday evening with good friends, good drinks, and good conversation

*Finished my Halloween decorating (spiderwebs with little orange spiders in the bushes, check)

*Went for a autumn afternoon walk

My camera and I went for a walk on Sunday afternoon and I held my own Halloween decoration contest around my neighborhood. Here are some of the highlights.

"Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold,

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay."

-Robert Frost

A leafy path.

Oh so mum-my.

Garden with ghouls.

Follow the pumpkins home.

No decorations, but I love this old house. Could be haunted, no?

Lovely ghoul.

A small witch accident.

Enter at your own risk.

And the best for last...

Arachnophobia!

Trick or Treat!

Trick or treat!

This week: the cutest homemade Halloween tricks (ok, treats really) from etsy!

Sweet coasters to hold your hot apple cider.

{Peganders}

Lovely little pumpkin.

{allthingswhite}

There is something adorably spooky about this decoration.

{Nesedecor}

Who's up for a frightening game?

{PsAndQ's}

A horrific print from drawing 101.

{tamaragarvey}

A collection of beautiful handblown glass pumpkins.

{JessieCGlass}

Perfect for the kitchen or bar-area.

{sleepyhollowprims}

Hang up a haunted photograph.

{zuppaartista}

Put your pillows in costume.

{sewluckygirl}

A necklace for the witching hour.

{crystalbouquet}

Delight your guests with some real witch's brew.

{printyourparty}

Send out this festive card and have a black cat cross your friend's path.

{thespottedsparrow}

I want.

I will be tracking a pair of these down this weekend.

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For less than $13!

Toss me in the deep end

I am not a "deep" person. I once read this article in Elle about "deep" and "shallow" people, which I can't find again for the life of me, and I would probably consider myself the latter. Though highly educated, still not deep. Right now I'm reading a "deep" book- "Saturday" by Ian McEwan (also the author of "Atonement"). I am loving the book, but it is "deep," something I probably should have expected knowing already the author's writing style, along with the fact that the plot-following an ordinary man's life for a single day-stretches on for 289 pages. The book makes me feel "deep" after spending enough time with it. Though I have tagged many pages (an old habit when I read a quote that really speaks to something in me), one of my recent tags reads:

"He wraps each species of fish in a several pages of a newspaper. This is the kind of question Henry liked to put to himself when he was a schoolboy: what are the chances of this particular fish, from that shoal, off that continental shelf ending up in the pages, no, on this page of this copy of the Daily Mirror? Something just short of infinity to one. Similarly, the grains of sand on a beach, arranged just so. The random ordering of the world, the unimaginable odds against any particular condition, still please him."

So, while on the bus today, inspired by the gorgeous fall weather and this novel, I tried my hardest to think my own "deep" thoughts. This is what transpired.

*What if the city you lived in had exactly the opposite climate that it experiences now? Would the people be the same? How would this affect business and crime?

*Why is it that every leaf on the same vine can be a different color? Are leaves like people, each one individual?

*If you came across the slightly automated person who makes the bus/train stop announcements, or the elevator calls, would you recognize their voice?

And so went my shallowly "deep" afternoon.

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Trick or treat!

Trick or treat! This week: treats to sip.

A sweet cinnamon rimmed carmel apple cider martini.

Hola Jose! A smoky pear margarita.

Sip some apple pie (sans alcohol) with apple pie cider.

Candy corn vodka? Oh yes.

Dust off the Crockpot and make some mulled wine.

Pumpkin pie in the sky.

Have some halloween candy with your blood martini!

It wouldn't be autumn without some hot buttered rum.

Good ole' Hershey's hot chocolate.

Nothing beats homemade ginger ale.

This cinnamon roll milkshake is almost too much to handle.

{Photo}

Love at first sight

Just some midday eye candy courtesy of Kate Spade...

Radcliffe Mirra clutch

Damask ring

Hourglass bangle

Lacy heel

Waiting...

I had a big event today that I will find out more about in two weeks. Until then, cross your fingers for me!

“ If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.Lao Tzu

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26.2

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the whole year...Chicago Marathon day!! I decided to take a year off from running it this year, so instead I became my boyfriend's (a non-runner) coach. This made me nervous in completely new ways. Though I would never discount all of the hard work he put in (he impressed me beyond what I could have expected), I felt as if I had created this thing, this runner, and if the marathon didn't go well, it would be my failure. It was like watching a baby grow. The day was fantastic though, and I am so proud of him. Despite it being a balmy 33 degrees at start time and now having a massively injured knee, I would do it all over again in a second.

Some of the highlights of the day:

*Catching a 6:20 El train and having it be full of other runners.

*Watching the sun rise over the lake.

*Kissing my boy good luck, then sprinting blocks to get a perfect position to see the start line, and then the swell of 45,000 runners beginning their journey.

*Running all over the course (and city) cheering on all my friends and former teammates who were running.

*My boyfriend and I had agreed that I would do the final 6 miles with him, but he was struggling around the 17.5 mile mark, so I jumped in with him for good. It was an incredible feeling right then- "okay, this is it, this is the end and we're going to do this together."

*Hearing the crowds cheer in all languages and playing music for the runners- almost overwhelming at times.

*Around mile 23, having my boyfriend start repeating "I love you, you know that, I love you." I asked him if he was feeling okay, then if he was dying and felt like these were his last words.

*Even later in the day having him ask in his delirium if I would "be his running partner in the marathon that is life." No, that was not a real proposal.

The next few days will be spent on the couch with some ice, trying to overcome the post-marathon blues.