Quick Question

Where did September go?!

Summer slipped away and Autumn took her place in the blink of an eye!

Time is passing way too quickly these days.  I think this is either called "getting older" or "sleep deprivation."  Either way, I'll see you on the other side of the weekend in October, friends!

Dottie Adele: A Milestone!

Pop the virtual champagne, I just reached 100 sales in my Etsy shop!

I'm so honored that and frankly amazed that there are 100 people walking around out there on Planet Earth wearing something that has a tag that says "Dottie Adele" sewed into it.  It boggles my mind a little, but mostly it makes me very grateful and excited.

Here's to the next 100 to come!

Weekend: Lakehouse, Autumn, Friends

We spent the weekend at a gorgeous lakehouse in upstate New York, just relaxing with friends and basking in the first few days of fall (we did the same thing a few years ago, too).  It's the perfect thing to do this time of year, taking a few days to recharge, do nothing, and enjoy the changing seasons.  I hope this is the way I remember fall in New York, these people, and this time in our lives.

 

 

Stuff I Like: When Hanson Covers Everything

Did you guys know that grown-up Hanson is awesome?  I actually wasn't even that big of a Hanson fan as a kid (I had my loyalties pledged elsewhere), but I've seen them live four times in the past 8 years or so, and they absolutely never disappoint.

This week they covered Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" on an Australian radio show, and it made me long for some other Hanson covers as well.  (And by the way, their last 3 or 4 albums of original music have been stellar as well.)  Enjoy!

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"
Box drumming!


"Thriller"
1. It is Halloween and they are dressed like a mariachi band.
2. Taylor doesn't really know the words to the song.
3. This is basically just 3 minutes of improvised zombie dancing.

"Ain't No Sunshine"
Get it, Isaac.


"Never Been to Spain"
Our boys from Oklahoma!  The tuba section used to play this at our football games (a favorite!)


And lastly, want a little bit of flavor in your National Anthem?  Just call Taylor.

We Went to Rosewood, But We Didn't Meet "A"

Last weekend while we were visiting Pennsylvania, Heidi and I convinced our husbands to drive us to the town of Rosemont, PA, because Heidi had heard somewhere that the town of Rosewood in Pretty Little Liars is based on it!  And it makes sense:  the author of the PLL books is from a suburb of Philadephia (like Rosemont/Rosewood) and the girls on the show are always taking the train into Philly (and it was only about a 20 minute drive away, and we saw the Rosemont/Rosewood train station!).  So, basically, we spent an afternoon running around, pretending like things we saw were things from the show (even though they weren't).  See my comparisons below; the show Rosewood is on the left, the real Rosemont is on the right.

Like this college campus!  The show has a college called Hollis, and this real college is called Rosemont College.  Pretty creative name for your college, Rosemont, PA.

There was this church, which had a bell tower, just like the one in PLL.

A bell tower which Scott climbed up, which was kind of terrifying but also awesome. (He did not fall to his death like evil Ian).  Also, on the show the church is tiny and only has like 5 pews, but this church was bigger, and also really pretty!

We sneaked into some doors that we were probably not supposed to go in to, just like they do on the show. All the time. And never seem to get caught.  Neither did we!

There was also a huge e-waste drop-off going on, where people were bringing all their electronics to be disposed of.  Probably that's where Caleb would go to pick up some black market phones and laptops.

We also found this very grand fireplace, like the one in the Hastings' living room, where the girls like to plot things and also where Spencer's dad burned her field hockey stick, which was some kind of important clue that everyone later just forgot about completely!

Also, pumpkins!  Because the Halloween special episode of  PLL is coming up.  So you know, pumpkins...Halloween.  That's the same.

Thanks for the memories, Rosemont/Rosewood!

Today was a...

thanks for this one, heidi

regular day.
long day.
busy day.
nothing-all-that-special day.
but also:
a
good day. 

feeling blessed by the mundane, the ordinary, and the familiar.

Weekend: Orchard-Pickin'

Over the weekend, we headed to PA to visit the Walkers!   While we were there, between free yoga class, eating at chain restaurants, going to Target, and watching Evil Dead, which Scott claimed was going to be "cheesy scary" but in reality I found to be terrifying, we also went to an orchard to pick some fresh produce!  Every fall, I've had a fleeting thought that we should go apple picking, so I'm glad to say we actually did it.

And, turns out, it wasn't really what we thought it was going to be.  Ha!  I thought apple picking involved ladders and wooden boxes.  Turns out, it involved a seemingly endless row of apple shrubs (I thought apples grew on trees?), walking through hundreds of bees and a stench the likes of something I had never before smelled, getting hotter every second, and the good-looking apples were tricky to find.

But find them we did, and rejoiced with each one!

This farm also had rows of veggies, so we picked up some of those too!

Like this really bizarre looking pepper...

and this hidden stash of eggplant.

The rest of the farm was awesome too.  We went to the food market and got ice cream (coconut Almond Joy for me - delish!), caught some live music, checked out the petting zoo, watched a lady do some hula-hooping, and looked around a craft fair.  The amazing thing was that it was all free of charge.  Seriously, if anyone reading this lives in eastern Pennsylvania, get thee to Linvilla Orchards! (P.S.  There was also a corn maize and hay rides, but we got there too late for them!)

We wanted to make a dinner feast with all our pickings, so Heidi and I went to the grocery store to get the rest of the necessary ingredients.  We were looking all around for a box of cornbread mix, when Heidi spotted this wall:

Nailed it.

We also put together a brown-sugary-cinnamony pie of deliciousness with this recipe and our freshly picked apples, and it was everything it was promised to be.

Thanks again, Marshall and Heidi, for another great weekend!

The Time We Accidentally Attended a Movie Premiere

And that time was last night!

So, here's what happened:  over the weekend, Scott saw on Reddit that there was an advanced screening of The Master at the Ziegfeld on Tuesday.  He has been dying to see this movie, tickets were only $10 (normally they're $13 here!), and it was days before anyone else got to see it, so we got them.  Having no idea what a genius decision this was.

[Also, here's the trailer.  This is a Paul Thomas Anderson-directed, Oscar-buzzing movie, plus this trailer is intriguing, no?]

Anyway, so we show up at the theater last night to get in line, only to discover that there is a red carpet laid out, there are paparazzi already there, and Luis Guzman is just hanging around.  We were like, "Uh, are we at a movie premiere?"

Answer:  yes.  We were at a movie premiere.  Accidentally!

We were given assigned seats, ushered into the building, handed free popcorn and water (uh, $10 movie AND free treats?!?!?!  Why am I not going to premieres ALL THE TIME?!).  Then we found our seats.

Such a gorgeous theater!  Though freezing cold.  Anyway, we were so far back and really wanted to be closer, so Scott went and asked nicely for closer seats, and then we were moved up to here:

Sort of off to the side, but I didn't care all that much when Harvey Weinstein and Amy Adams were standing in the aisle right next to me waiting to go up to the front to introduce the movie.  !!!!!  P.S.  She is seriously the prettiest.

Amy and Madisen Beaty (who was in the movie) on the red carpet LAST NIGHT!!!

Then they played the movie!  I liked it, but I don't think I got it.  When I just think about it as a whole, it makes sense to me.  But when I think about the individual bits of it, then I don't get it.  So...I don't know.  But Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, as always, completely embodied those characters in a way that is almost frightening.  Really spectacular.

Also, in case you were wondering, YES, there were other famous people there!  Like, everywhere!  We left the theater and saw Bryan Greenberg and David Straitharn.  When we had gotten a few blocks away, I realized I had left my camera under my seat, so we turned back in a panic, and went back in to find it, which was the best thing ever because then we walked directly past:  Fisher Stevens, Edward Norton, and Jack McBrayer.  And apparently, Adrien Brody, Gabourey Sidibe, and Rosie Perez were there as well, but we didn't see them!

WE ARE SO FANCY!

Also!   Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character in this movie is loosely based on the founder of Scientology, and apparently, the Weinstein Company had been getting some strange calls from Scientologists in the days leading up to this premiere, so they had some beefed up security ordered!  We are fancy AND we live in danger!

P.S.  Just like I always I dreamed I would, I wore one of my own creations to my first ever red carpet event :)

Just a Favorite

Just a few lines from a very favorite poem of mine.  Let's live each day with this in mind.

Dottie Adele: Polka Dot & Pleats

New in the shop:  my first new piece for fall!  Ta-daaaaaaaaaaa!

Guys, I just love this skirt.  I love it I love it I love it.  It was one of those times that the design I had in my head came together perfectly and turned out just how I had imagined!

Anyway, enough gushing, here are the details:  It's a midi length skirt, black with white polka dots, tiny pleats all around.  In other words, WAY CUTE.  And you could have one too :)

If you would like to check it out on my Etsy shop, please click on over!

We're on Mars Right Now

Have you been following along with Curiosity's journey on Mars?  I got home just in time from the airport to watch him land back at the beginning of August, and have been checking up on him every once in awhile to see what he's doing.

I know he's a machine and stuff, but I think he's sort of adorable!  Just motoring around up there on Mars, checking stuff out, sending stuff back, snapping some pics.  You know, just chillin'.

One of the first pictures he took was of his own little wheel/foot.

He's also been joy riding around Mars, making all sorts of crazy tracks!

(though he moves at some insanely slow rate, like 0.06 mph or something)

Curiosity even sent back a song from Mars to Earth last week.  Unfortunately, he chose a Will.I.Am. song, which is kind of lame, but all the space dudes are so into it, in their restrained sort of way.  Plus I love how they invited so many school kids to come listen!  Go science!

PLUS, as you may recall, our names are up there with him!  Somewhere on one of Curiosity's microchips, Scott and Valerie are taking the journey with him.  So keep on trucking, Curiosity!

*all pics from nasa.gov or rt.com

TV Shows I Watched in August Instead of Reading Books

We may have cancelled our cable way back in March (has it been that long?!), but I certainly haven't been depriving myself of TV by any means. Usually I like to do a monthly recap of the books I've read in the past month, buuuut since I spent the whole of August watching TV on Netflix and Hulu and therefore only getting about 60 pages in to one book, I thought I would talk about what I've been watching instead!

Parenthood
My friend Rachel has been recommending Parenthood to me ever since it started 3 years ago, and I finally started watching (all three seasons are currently streaming on Netflix!).  Basically, it's about four grown siblings, their parents, and their families, and it's pretty genius and beautiful and also very funny.  Also, Dax Shepard is more brilliant than you could have ever imagined he could be.  I've flown through these since the show is just so engaging and true to life.  Although, be warned:  you could create a drinking game out of every time Lauren Graham gets teary-eyed and every time someone in the family is yelling over someone else in the family.  Mildly annoying, but certainly not annoying enough to make me stop watching!

Dance Academy
I could talk about this one forever, but I will control myself.  The premise here is Australian teenagers attending a ballet boarding school in Sydney.  And I'm obsessed with it.  I wish I could fully explain what it is about this show that is so addicting, but I can't.  All I can tell you is that you won't be able to stop watching, and that is a good thing.  Plus, once they draw you in with all the ballet, the beautiful Sydney scenery, the ridiculously embarrassing teenager antics, the legit soundtrack, and the characters who you cannot help but develop very strong love/hate feelings for, they will then emotionally destroy you to your very core and leave you crying for hours on end.  So, just watch it.  There are two seasons available right now streaming on Netflix!

Parks & Rec
This show had to grow on me, but now I love it.  Scott and I have watched all 4 seasons (on Netflix!  Should I become a Netflix spokesperson?) and the totally bizarre, very pointed personalities of each character are definitely what make this one so great.  Half the time I don't even care what the plot of the episode is, as long as Ron is talking about meat, Tom's swagger is at its best, and Andy is doing something so stupid it's endearing.

Pretty Little Liars
PLL was the only show that was actually currently on TV all summer that I actually kept up with!  Geez, I love this show so much and hate it so much.  The intrigue!  The stalking!  All of their hot boyfriends!  The plot taking totally unexpected turns that also make absolutely no sense!  It's a favorite, has been for the past two years, and will continue to be so.  I hope they never figure out who exactly A is so that this show will never end!  (What's that?  You aren't caught up with this one?  Don't worry - the first two seasons are Netflix!  [bet you didn't see that one coming])