this too shall pass.

This has been going around the interwebs for a few days now, so I thought I would pass it along...

I love all of OK Go's antics, and this one is great!

so here's OK Go - This too shall pass





and here are some making of videos:






tiiiightt

fresh start

its time for a new journal! I got my square ruled moleskine last year (started march 16, so almost a full year) and I have very much enjoyed it. I decided I would just stick with what I like and so I got squared moleskine #2 the other day. This, accompanied by my pink march colour-a-month planner just makes me smile.

also, today I decided that 3-4pm is my favorite time of day.. especially in this kind of spring-like weather. I have also found in my various 2-4pm art/architecture history classes that this is the most difficult time of day to stay awake. hope ya'll had a lovely thursday!

international women's day!

Monday was International Women's Day and to celebrate, I went to work. ha.

There are 29 countries who celebrate the day as an official holiday. Obviously the US is not one of them, but for the past two years I was able to celebrate the day in two countries who do.
In 2008, I was in Rome, Italy working on my thesis. On this day we used the opportunity to go to a celebration at Corviale, my thesis site. It was a very interesting experience which included a 2-hour long video about Women's liberation in Italy... all in Italian of course. We did receive yellow mimosas though, which is tradition, and very lovely indeed. If you want to read more about my day there click here... which is a link to the Thesis blog I kept back when.

Last year, in 09 we celebrated in E. Asia! Our teacher 马老师, took us to eat at a brazilian bbq buffet. It was both a strange and delicious experience. I miss her and all of these lovely ladies sooooo..

Next year, maybe I will be more up on my game and be able to celebrate with a nice dinner or cupcakes or something. maybe.

homes for haiti

tonight, I had the opportunity to help build some homes for haiti. The church I've been going to has teamed up with CORE Alliance and Builders Without Borders to build 10,000 homes. They aren't meant to be permanent structures, but next-step, temporary (lasting around 3 years) shelters to replace the tent cities that thousands of earthquake survivors are now living in.

The homes are shipped as walls and floors and the assembled on site. We had this whole assembly line going on. I got to use the circular saw! And my team cut all of these sheets down to size:

While I was working and covered in saw dust, I was thinking about that sweet smell of fresh lumber. I was reminded of the two spring breaks I spent gutting homes in New Orleans. I remember the smell of mold and rot.. I remember that down the street from one of the houses we worked in was a home that was actually starting to be reconstructed. You could smell the fresh lumber all the way down the street.. I remember thinking that that is the sweeeeetest smell... because it means newness, hope and progress.. I hope that these fresh, sweet smelling homes can provide the same kind of relief and hope to those in haiti.

more chocolate cupcakes mmmm

I made more cupcakes for work this week! This was the best batch yet.. they were delicciousssss

I had sooo much fun making them pretty and dipping them in pink sprinkles.. I was all giggling and Eric was like, "What's going on in there?!"

I'm so glad I had people to share them with at work, otherwise I would have eaten them all!

just another day

at Hob Lob #12.


we just got this shipment of owl pots in our "Garden 2010" section, and I already bought the cutest little owl.. I almost had a fit when i walked by this aisle and saw them all set up on the shelf.. AHHhhhh so cute!

He is keeping baby Mao (who's not so baby anymore) company until I can work up the courage to kill another plant.


also, in between days of non-stop rain, we have had a few days that make me feel like I'm back in the Bay Area.. clear skies and cool, drive-with-the-windows-down, lay-in-the-grass weather. perfect.

cupcake explosions

so I wanted to make a ton of valentine cupcakes for people.. work, life group, friends, family, etc. so i got some recipes off of Bakerella and set about making some delicious fun.. the chocolate ones kind of exploded in the oven for various reasons, but the yellow-cake ones turned out pretty decent.

All of the supplies on the baking aisle in Hobby Lobby have been calling my name for a while, so I finally bought some decorating tools and had some fun!

I think they turned out pretty nice.. Atleast they look pretty even if the cake was a little dense.. I really need to work on my baking skills.

Also on Wednesday, I got to play mommy to this little guy:

I found him in wandering in the rain a few blocks from my house.. his owner was no where to be found. It was getting dark, and I was afraid his 4-pound soul would be turned into owl or coyote food, so I picked him up and brought him home. (we have one owl that stalks the neighborhood at night, he's huge! And I saw a coyote in DAYLIGHT run through my front yard the other day.. kind of scary.)

he makes Dakota look like a monster!

His dad came to claim him yesterday evening.. it was a good thing I picked him up, because he had just left for a 14-hour work shift when lil' toot (aka Nugget) had escaped.