Winter Wonderland

Some of the sufferings we undergo in Minnesota.


We thought this car in bad shape.

And then we saw this car.

All on our quest for wine to warm our spirits.

Snow fort!!

Snow seat and shelf

Fashion photo

I've followed the thesartorialist.blogspot.com for awhile now and love the styles from around the world almost as much as the photographer's apparent ability to get random people on the street to stop and pose.

This photo was from a couple weeks ago, aside from the hair I want to immitate this whole look. 

However, before seeing this picture I would have made fun of this skirt if I saw it by itself.  Probably with a snide comment about non-magazine readers from the early 90s. 

 

Now and then

Sometimes memories from childhood are belatedly realized to be hilarious.  These memories are always my favorites.

My young friends and I were quite cultured.  Our favorite movies were Shakespeare and Jane Austen adaptations and we read books like A Tale of Two Cities and Crime and Punishment at astonishingly young ages.  So, it was quite in character for us to find repeatedly belting out the opening song from Much Ado About Nothing to be acceptable middle school slumber party entertainment. 

After a riveting reenactment of an Anne Frank rescue, eating loads of delicious health food and jumping on one of those nice big trampolines, I vividly remember all of us laying in Macala's pop-up camper, set up in their barn, singing the following:

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh nor more;
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never;
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny;
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into. Hey nonny, nonny.

AND THEN VERSE TWO

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo,
Or dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leavy.
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into. Hey, nonny, nonny.

Evidently we were unreasonably disillusioned children. I say unreasonably because at that same slumber party I also recall an extensive conversation regarding nicknames for 'men' we 'liked'.  And by 'liked' I mean 'saw around town on a somewhat reliable basis'.

Kids' silliness is, without a doubt, one of the best things in life.

I'm a published author!!!

Today in the mail I received copies of ON Magazine containing two articles by me.  Seriously.  At the top they say: By Lauren Viner.  This is the first time I've been paid to write anything, it was fun and seeing something I wrote in print was exciting.

Until I re-read the articles.  You often hear about drama queen writers with pathetic, crippling insecurity being overly touchy about 'their work'.  Everyone around them is thinking, 'get over yourself, it's fine.'  Well I was not prepared for this.  Interviewing someone, summarizing what they say and organizing everything into a cohesive, educated sounding article was kind of hard.  I found doing things like making sure I was quoting accurately to be a hindrance on my writing style, which normally consists of making up stuff.  Also not helping is the fact the magazine was mailed to subsribers a week ago and I have yet to receive any type of recognition.  Like a book deal.

So the articles are ok, but I want to re-write them so they're more creative sounding.  Don't you wish you could read them?  Well you can't because after 3 fruitless minutes of trying to find a free online writers portfolio I stopped looking.  Another 2 minutes on Google docs were also unsatisfactory.

Plus I need some practice.  So when I write something good, maybe you can read that.  The magazine is fun and has some stuff online which can be seen here.

A few fun things about Alaska



Anything is valid yard decoration.  Praise an Alaskan's junk collection and doors will open.



The pipeline, an amazing feat of engineering, stretches from the north to south of the state.



Glacier!




Animals in Denali Park!









Beautiful scenery in all directions.

 

Everybody's working for... their 401K payout

On the whole I like having a job. I'm not productive without one and unemployment is unhealthy. In general I also like being young. I don't want to be old, I'm not in a rush to retire.

Calitri, Italy
Population: 5.685
Southern Italy, close to Amalfi Coast, scenic vistas.

But on days when you wake up, trip over your laundry basket, drop everything you pick up at least once, spill coffee on yourself, have nothing good for breakfast, break a shoe and realize there's a bunch of stuff you forgot to do the day before... the benefits of work are less clear. When trapped in the above scenario the unemployed or retired aren't forced to persevere; they can go back to bed and try things again in a couple hours.

Istria, Croatia
Population 206,000
On the Adriatic Sea, mountains, like Tuscany but not touristy

So reading an article called '8 Cheap Spots for Retiring Overseas' was both inspirational and torture. I can't wait to retire overseas. In 30. long. years.

These pics are my top 3 choices. I found I was drawn to the smaller, more out of the way places rather than huge cities. Evidently my urban loving-small town hating persona is a huge sham.

Cuenca, Ecuador

Population 467,000 (ok so not that small)

Rivers, nice weather, Spanish

Why We Love Dior. Part 2.

We love Dior for color, extravagance, being exciting, being interesting and for making things that are simply oh so pretty.

Usually I wear things that are more classic, darker colors, etc. Which is why I would be satisfied with owning just one of these Cinderella-with-edge dresses.





Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2010