"Little One"

I'm currently in a deep photo hunt, searching out pictures to use in my mashup post for Monday. I want to use only my own photos, so I am frantically searching through my computer in hopes of finding enough pictures to make my post as visually pleasing as I hope it will be verbally. In my hunt I came across one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE photos, and since it never fails to make me smile, I wanted to share it with the rest of you!

"Little One" Hawaii 2005. If you look really closely in the left lens of my sunglasses you can see me, my glass of wine, and my camera...which in my mind make this picture even more swoon worthy... the camera and the wine that is!

Under The Milky Way

I've been swooning over Sia's cover of "Under the Milky Way" (originally by The Church) for MONTHS, thanks to this car commercial below, AND now it is finally available to buy on iTunes (hooray)!



The car does nothing for me, but I do think that the way the music shows it off in the commercial is sort of amazing. Personally I think commercials are one of the best ways to discover new music... in addition to such guilty pleasures such as "The Hills" and "Laguna Beach" (not like I know that from personal experience or anything though... hehehe, yeah right). 

Kiddo Art

Coffee, coffee, coffee. I am one of those people that needs to have at least one cup of coffee a day or it's not a pretty sight, okay so it is usually more like two (one in the morning, and one in the afternoon), but that's beside the point. I never used to be like this, but over the years coffee just sort of snowballed into this necessity of life for me... I blame college. Anyway, where I was going with this was that today I had to go out for my coffee, as I was out of cream AND milk (I don't like black coffee). On my way back from the coffee shop I strolled past a group of kiddos waiting to be picked up from school, and it made me miss my kiddos, and our little school pick-up routine (for those of you who don't actually know me, I used to be a nanny, I don't actually have any kids of my own!). Then I remembered that I had this wonderful piece of kiddo art tucked away, and bringing it out was just the little pick me up that I needed to put a smile back on my face. There is just something so sweet and simple about kid's artwork, it sort of melts my heart. I love the way they come up to you, grinning from ear to ear and holding this piece of paper in their tiny little clenched hands (so as not to let it drop and get ruined), and then they excitedly utter those special words "I drew this for you." Yeah, I pretty much turn to mush right there, and for an instant I always feel like THE most important person in the world. It's really instant happiness!

My portrait drawn by my favorite 4 year old (looks just like me, right?!?)

Handmade Valentines

Last week I went home for a dentist appointment (yuck...), it was a short but sweet visit. When I left I made sure to bring back to Brooklyn with me some of my crafting supplies... because, Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and I was itching to craft up some cards! 

I really enjoy handmade goodies of any kind, but for me there is something a little extra special about a handmade valentine. I think it has something to do with the fact that from 3rd-8th grade this is how my Valentine's Days rolled. At my school the typical kiddo friendly boxed valentines were forbidden, and in their place a rather lovely tradition was implemented instead. The concept was simple, but yet so sweet and so kind. Much like a "Secret Santa" names were picked at random, and kept secret until the revealing ceremony on Valentine's Day. In order to stretch our creative minds, we had to craft our own valentines. Buying cards, candy, or other trinkets was out of the question, it was all about what you could make with some paper and a glue stick! Every single child got ONE valentine. Of course some cards were far more DIY fabulous than others, but the point was that everyone felt loved, and no one felt left out or more popular than the others. We all felt proud of the cards we created, and we all felt special knowing that the cards we received were just for us. I love knowing that this tradition still lives on there, since sadly many of the other important ones have been let go of. 

My mom actually works at my old school, and although she moans and groans about how much she dislikes being "stuck" in this tradition, I always looked forward to our nights of valentine card crafting together. It was a really nice time for us to share together, letting our minds wander, me offering up color combination and cut out heart placement advice, my mom struggling with the hot glue gun, but all the while the two of us laughing and smiling. So while unfortunately this year I will not be at home to share in a night of crafting with my mom, I did make sure to craft up a storm here in Brooklyn by myself. And so now that I have talked your ear off, and traveled back in time to a gawky middle schooler ready to unveil her most recent valentine creation (can we say braces, bangs, a bad perm, and glasses!), I'll give you a glimpse at some of the valentines I crafted up this year, and that will be making their way to some special mailboxes very soon! 

Owen Maxwell

Last night I discovered my upstairs neighbors have a cat (in addition to their two dogs). My downstairs neighbors also have a cat. I am in a kitty sandwich, with currently no kitty of my own here in Brooklyn (insert my sad face here). I do have two kitty boys (Owen Maxwell and Sullivan), but they live at home with my mom... and I was by no means being allowed to move them to Brooklyn with me (once again insert my sad face here). It's okay though, they are very good company for my mom, and I get to see them on my frequent visits home (I'm still not quite ready to part with my car... we'll just call it a mild case of separation anxiety... I mean I have been driving since I was 16, that's over a decade!). I'm hoping I can convince my roomie that we need a cat, and by that I mean I NEED a cat... and soon! She's allergic, but I'm hoping to work some magic on her at some point, thus allowing me to bring a fur baby into The Apartment. In the meantime I dream of this cutie below... he's just one of my many swoonettes.

Isn't he ridiculously photogenic?!? I'm convinced if Tyra Banks had an "America's Next Top Animal Model" he would win (he would of course be the plus sized model of the group, but I'm pretty sure he could stomp out the competition with his fierceness!).  

Organized Chaos

I kind of love organizing! For me the whole process is like a form of stress relief. I enjoy taking on a giant crazy pile of stuff and cleaning it all up into one very neat and tidy little package. A mess is like a big puzzle, and I must use my logic and creativity to make everything fit together. When I finish not only do I get a lovely organized end result, but I also get the biggest rush of happiness, and sense of accomplishment. 

I'm really good at making a BIG mess!

But I'm actually quite a bit better at cleaning it all up! Tah dah! An hour or so later and back to normal!

P.S. Consider this a sneak peak into my bedroom! However, once I get a few more things finished up in there I promise there will be a full post/tour dedicated to it. So stay tuned... slowly but surely...

Beer Barn

So I've been attempting to clean up the chaos of The Apartment all day, in order to have things slightly neat and tidy, before I have to head to the airport to pick up my friend Sarah, who is coming to visit for the weekend (YAY!). However, I'm finding putting things back together in an orderly fashion, after my week of DIY projects, is a bit harder than I had anticipated... mainly due to the fact that I keep getting sidetracked by all things cute and funny in the world today! For instance I've watched Ben's stint on "Parks and Recreation" about a dozen times so far (and I still can't stop laughing). I've contemplated what bacon cupcakes might taste like (thanks Rebecca, I'm totally intrigued now). And I've spruced up the amaryllis plant my aunt gave me for Christmas (see picture below).

Presto chango! Bye bye ugly plastic container and hello totally Swoonette worthy replacement! It's actually just some painter's paper I happened to have hiding out in the closet, and a cute ribbon bow! I think it looks SO much better now though... and actually sort of chic!

However, my main distraction of the day comes from the adorableness that is my friend Elizabeth's daughter Emma! I kindly convinced my lovely friend that she NEEDED to guest blog here on Swoonette today, and she agreed! Hooray! My first guest blogger! So without further ado here is what I just can't take my eyes off of... because, I love beer, and I love kids!

The Beer Barn: By Elizabeth 

Emma and I found a make-shift barn for her animals today.

Perhaps I should actually make it look like a barn instead of a weird animal brewery.

OK back to cleaning! Thanks Elizabeth for sharing your swoon worthy family, and your clever six pack idea!

Vampire Weekend

Oh Vampire Weekend. How I do love thee, let me count the ways. Everything about you is so swoon worthy, from your amazing music to your cute quirky band members. Heck, even your album cover sets my heart aflutter. So because of this, I thought the image below would be the perfect way to introduce this week's roundup. The chandelier!