Noodles Spam

I interrupt this blog for some deadly cute iPhone photos of my kitty cat, Noodles Meriwether.







You may now go on about your day. If Fluffy Belly Noodster hasn't put you in a coma o' cute, that is.

drug-store beauty

I'm not all that girly, for a girl. But I do have a love for good lotions and potions and smelly-good goodies. Here are some of my favorites, all readily available and cheap as chips.


Aveeno Positively Nourishing Fig-Shea butter body wash.
This is the newest product on the list. It just smells like heaven... just enough sweet, a little earthy, creamy. It has the kind of rich, natural, non-cheap scent you would expect from higher-end soap makers like LUSH (which I love love love) and Body Shop. I want to be surrounded by this smell at all times. It does seem to moisturize fairly well, too.


Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque
An old-skool favorite. I have problem skin. Zits. Been plagued with them since I can remember. Blech. While this mud mask isn't a cure-all, it is really refreshing and leaves your face feeling clean, tingly and so soft. It also works as an overnight spot treatment.


Bio-Oil
My BFF just introduced me to this a few weeks ago. It is the most pricey item on today's list, but a little bit goes a long way. It's a light-weight oil that I like to put on as a body moisturizer after I shower. It has a lovely herbal smell, and is supposed to help with stretch-marks and uneven skin tone.


Palmer's Cocoa Butter Gel Oil
This is another favorite after-shower moisturizer of mine, though it is heavier. I use this more in the winter when my skin tends to get really dry and itchy. In the summer it's usually too heavy. It smells just like chocolate and looks like honey. So luxurious. Yum.


Palmer's Shea Butter lotion
This is my favorite lotion ever. Apparently I really like the scent of Shea and Cocoa butters huh? This lotion smells clean yet creamy and rich. It absorbs well, without being sticky. The only problem I ever have with this lotion is that the pump on the bottle usually gives out about 3/4 of the way through.


Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser
As I said earlier, I am an acne veteran. Still get it, even though I'm in my 30s. For years and years I thought the solution was harsh chemical cleansers and astringents like Clearasil. ACID WILL KEEL THESE PIMPLES! Turns out all that ever did was irritate everything and make it look worse. Cetaphil is really gentle, cleans well without stripping away the good oils, and leaves my face soft and not-so spotty.

favorite live music. part 2 of ... who knows.

Back in April, I wrote about some of my favorite new bands based on live shows I had been to. Time for the next installment! I'm still going to lots of shows and I still can't get enough live music! Love it. Here are a few of the bands from the past month or so that really stood out to me.

Quintron & Miss Pussycat



I wasn't sure what to expect when my friend invited me to this show. She said there were puppets involved? and electronic music? Then the opening band came on and I got worried. The guitarist's wiener was hanging out of his short shorts, and the lead mumbler was dressed as a mustard bottle... turns out there was nothing under that costume either. So much wiener, so little enjoyable music. But, Quintron did not disappoint. Amazing show.



Miss Pussycat's puppet show was charming, funny, and weird. It revolved around an elephant and a tiger making "Magic Pizza" which is illegal, apparently. After the puppet show, Quintron played super-fun crazy dance music with his keyboard/drum machine set up while Miss Pussycat (yes, they are married), played the maracas (which matched her dress!) and sang. The crown, including me, loved them. Sweaty, silly fun. Here's a good review of this particular show. And check out my pal Bryan Sutter's photos from the show. Bryan is the house photog for the Firebird, and his shots are always impressive.


Peter Wolf Crier


Peter Wolf Crier are two guys that opened up for the Freelance Whales. As an opening band, they blew the crowd away, and became the talk of the evening. I thought they were adorable, and they sounded so rich and loud for just being 2 dudes.



Check out my favorite new local blog, I Went To A Show, and my friend Julie's review of the Freelance Whales/Peter Wolf Crier Show. And from that same blog, a great piece by Dave on how much St. Louis ROCKS in terms of live music audiences lately. He touches on Peter Wolf Crier as an example.

Freelance Whales: Also awesome.


Another shot of Freelance Whales.


Mumford & Sons



Months ago my friend April, the same gal who invited me to the Quintron show, sent me info about Mumford & Sons, saying she had just discovered them and was smitten, and thought I might like to go to the show. She's got great taste, so I was in. Plus? One of the band members has a food blog! How could I not love them? Luckily, we got tickets in advance, because a couple weeks before the show, it SOLD OUT! I was not expecting that, but apparently lots of people have discovered Mumford & Sons great music.



The show was awe-inspiring. Lead singer Marcus Mumford has a certain moody intensity that makes me drool a little. The songs are like roller-coasters... quiet then raucous. The audience could not get enough. Here's my friend Jess's review for IWTAS, and here's another really good review from the Riverfront Times.

to do: crafty inspiration

I have not been crafting much lately, but as Willie Nelson says, You are always on my mind, crafts, you are always on myyyyy mind. There is always a list of projects I want to do. This list is ever-growing, evolving, changing...and not often enough getting shorter. Here is a portion of that list.... I have a feeling I just started another recurring post theme....


I have had light bulb bud vases on my radar for YEARS. Still have yet to make any, yet I still find them irresistibly adorable.



I pulled the above 2 photos from the Ruche shop website a few years ago, with the thought that "I could totally make those!." I have done a wire flower pendant since, but I want to do more, and bigger and beaded!



I love these 2 ideas because they combine my love for thrift and antique shopping with crafts/art. The one on top is a thrift store painting, basically used as a canvas. See more awesome examples here. The image below it is an antique photo that has been embroidered. It's a bit disturbing, but I really love the idea of sewing pretties onto crazy old forgotten pictures.


Paper Robot! to do with what I please! You will obey me, paper robot!



Oh Martha. Always such great ideas! Here are two fiber crafts that a wannabe knitter like me can do without un-lazying myself! No-knit scarf and felted beads!


Button rings. I may try to pry some of mamaphunk's pretty buttons from her at our next craft night. (BTW, she makes these awesome button/vintage flower pendants... go buy some!)

So, could I please get some more hours added to every evening? Thaaaanks.

4 Reel - Samurai Films

I'm gonna start a new feature... themed movie lists. Lists of 4 films that I think are awesome. And rather than try and be a movie critic, I'll think of 4 words that describe each movie, then include the trailer and IMDb link so you can explore them for yourself.

My first theme? Samurai Movies. One of my favorite genres, because the idea of Samurai is so intriguing to me. Grace, honor, violence, pride. These four all contain those elements, but are all quite different.



Onibaba. Eerie, desperate, strange, lonely.






Taboo. Beautiful, ambiguous, obsession, secrets.






Rashomon. Uncertain, Psychological, humanity, powerful.






Twilight Samurai. Honor, sacrifice, family, grief.

photo reflections

Using reflections in pictures is such a neat way to add interest to subjects. It gives photos a new perspective, sometimes distorting the subject, sometimes just multiplying the beauty. After seeing this Smashing Mag post of some STUNNING reflection photographs, I gathered some of my favorites from my own photo adventures:


A random building/street in Chicago.



My BFF with the Washington Monument reflected in her cool shades, from my trip to DC earlier this year.



My cousin and his fiance being silly with a mylar balloon.



Creve Couer Lake in winter. The sky was so amazing that evening. I love how the reflection of it in the lake makes kind of draws your eye in.



My friend Eric's band, So Much Closer, played at this place called The Library. It's a neat venue that was once a bank, so there are these security mirrors on the ceiling. One is right over the stage, so I took a picture of the band reflected in it for a different perspective.

The next three are from the same lake in South St. Louis County:





These are all from the Clouds' Gate Sculpture (also known as "the Bean") at Chicago's Millennium park. I was so totally enamored with this big mirrored bean. Endless options for reflection pictures:







And you know there's a Flickr group for such photos.

Lemonade

Last week, a couple fellow-designer friends and I attended a screening of the documentary Lemonade, put on by some local folks who wanted to get the film's message out, LemonadeSTL. I wasn't sure what to expect. It's a movie about people who have lost their jobs at advertising agencies.

I graduated with an advertising degree, and currently work doing design in-house for a local company. When I graduated from college, I had hopes and dreams of working at some hip agency. I am happy now to have ended up working in a more corporate environment... the agency life is fun for some, but I prefer job stability. So what could I take away from a film about people who have lost theirs?

It turns out Lemonade is very inspiring as far as following your dreams and unleashing your true self. The people the movie took the lemons that life gave them and made lemonade... hence the movie's title. In the end, they all started their own projects/businesses and were all thankful for the opportunities that getting laid off lent them. What a great message! So, even though I am employed at a job I love, the film made me that much more optimistic about life and personal creativity.

One of the people in the movie started the AdRants blog, which I had actually heard of before, and visited sporadically ( I will visit more often now, of course.)

One started an employment site called Please Feed the Animals, which is much more like a support community than your average job-seeker site.

Another started a really neat website called Cards of Change, in which people have lost their jobs alter their business cards to show how they have changed. Here are some of my favorites:






I love the poster for Lemonade, too. It is by designer Brad Kayal. I checked out his site, and there is some awesome stuff in his portfolio. How much do I love these CD covers for the band Fatal Flaw? LOTS.





So, yeah, tons of inspiration to be had from Lemonade. You can watch the whole movie on hulu. Tell me what you think!