girl's best friend

don't worry this post is NOT about diamonds. the fact that i don't own any certainly came in handy in new orleans when marty's house was broken into and ransacked and my jewelry was passed over by the thief. i guess it wouldn't be worth much at a pawn shop, but it is worth it's weight in gold to me (no pun intended). my collection has grown significantly over the years and again presented me with the challenge of what to do with it. inspired by my mom, who decorates frames, lamp switches and other random household objects with earth-toned jewelry, i came up with the following solution:

there's so much! it makes me so proud

this is actually a bamboo tie rack adorned with necklaces - i added the other little decorations like the greek evil eye and peruvian santa claus made out of a gourd just to make things a little more interesting

this used to be the door to an antique china cabinet. i took the glass panes out and replaced them with window netting from the hardware store to have a great place to hang all my earrings

i'm starting to run out of room

everything else goes in this antique toolbox i refurbished with some pretty, scented (ha!) drawer and cabinet liner i bought at marshall's. the top won't close any more, so sue me.

rain, rain go away

Just let it rain, originally uploaded by ~james.

i had some lofty goals for my day off today: a bike ride to the gym, getting some homework done, cooking a hearty soup for the weekend... but when i woke up the sounds of wet tires on the ground and saw streaks on my window, i knew it was going to be one of those days - movies, cups of coffee and hot chocolate, endless snacking and not leaving bed. so far i've been right on that mark (a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy? perhaps).

night time is the right time

this is it people, spring is upon us. the days are finally host to a little thing called "dusk," which apparently disappears during the winter months. i love this time - the day is winding down and you just know it's time to go home and kick up your feet (and watch ncis, lost, dexter... no? just me?) and have some "you" time.

beautiful city at dusk

the city through the greektown columns

woops boots

following the mpre on saturday, i went to dsw armed with two $10 gift certificates (which you get from dsw as part of their frequent buyer program thingy after you spend $250... oh gawd), hoping to treat myself to a discount on a reasonably-priced pair of earthy sandals for the impending springtime. disappointed with the selection of leather sandals (i cannot wear gladiators that are synthetic. what would russell crowe think??), i should have cut my losses, bought a new pair of gym shoes and called it a day. instead, i did this:

distressed leather, delicate faded gold studding

= heaven.

i love you, new boots. please be as "multipurpose" as i convinced myself into thinking you are in order to justify buying you.

love, margaret.

scarf crazy

when my roommates and i moved in together, we found ourselves with a unique (and wonderful) predicament: what does one do when the collections of 3 scarf aficionados collide?

our options were: continue using the plastic rubbermaid container roommates had stolen from their down-the-hall neighbors from their last apartment (i found this option to be slightly undignified); keep them in our respective rooms and maintain an open-door policy on borrowing (this seemed to me to be tempting disaster and scavenging); or pile them up in a corner and hope for the best (imagine the wrinkles! horrors!). none of these seemed ideal.

and then, it dawned on me: the space-saving technique i'd been using since my college days - when in doubt, hang it on the wall:

as soon as guests come in, they know they're in the company of fashionistas

this is a great way to get accessorized in the morning

options galore

but hording scarves in thy room is forbidden

obviously i'll be taking this idea with me to new orleans, although my collection will be thirded. i need to start stocking up now

homemade is the best-made

if anyone wasn't convinced that the guac recipe i posted yesterday is the best, easiest and most delicious ever, here is the proof:

this is what you'll need

delicious, ripe avocados

run a sharp knife through the avocado before you scoop it out of its skin

to make mixing easier later

wouldn't the empty skins make the cutest little serving bowls?

be careful when handling the chilis! they might not be too spicy,

but they'll pack a punch if you don't wash your hands afterward!

give the tomato a rough chop - the uneven chunks give great texture

pile all the ingredients into a bowl, and...

voila!!!

the finished product

and the award goes to...

i have been mentally preparing for this day for some time now. some of you might fault me for not being able to name a single player on the chicago bears or blackhawks (who apparently are playing against the redwings today, and i hear this is a big deal?), but my sunday pasttime is awards shows. tomorrow i will be able to spout off every designer's gown that walked down the red carpet and give you an approximate value, in carats, of how much each actress' outfit was worth.

later i'll take a trip to stanley's and stock up on guac essentials:

4 avocado

1/2 red onion

1 tomato

1 green chili pepper

1 lime

handful of cilantro

salt

pepper

finely chop the onion, tomato, cilantro and chili pepper. scoop avocado out of its skin. squeeze lime over the concoction and STIR till your heart's content. add salt and pepper to taste, grab a handful of tortilla chips (and an entire bottle of wine for yourself) and enjoy!

forget about the fact that i have seen one or two of the TEN best film contenders this year. anyone care to enlighten me with predictions?

photobooth

we had to attach passport photos to our mpre admission tickets. of course i didn't have one and wasn't about to go spend $8 at walgreens on four dinky little photos, so we made do with my nikon and a white wall.

of course it took a few tries.

and of course i had some fun editing them afterward

after a long day of studying she still looks like a babe

study buddy?

the mpre is over. i can breathe! yesterday the day was spent "studying," which basically consisted of practice exams interspersed with bags of chips, pizzas and feline distractions. kiki's three black cats, ani (the queen bee), klaus and doyle kept us highly entertained.

here are klaus and doyle with their outdoor girlfriend,

who visits with them on the sill

being stuck inside on beautiful day was torture

pretty little details everywhere

this is what a bookcase should look like

more interesting knick-knacks from kiki's travels

of course at the end of the day we rewarded ourselves with a trip to hema's kitchen in indiatown. it is beyond delicious, the service is amazing, the restaurant is a byob (my fave!) and it's totally affordable! here is all the food [the three of us] ordered:

naan, chicken biryani, raita, murg makhani, haryali chicken and egg curry.

= yum

today, i hit the books

the time to get serious about the mpre has arrived. it is, after all, tomorrow. devoting today to studying seems to be a wise choice. my study buddies and i are rewarding ourselves with a trip to hema's kitchen at the end of the day, so all is not lost.

collaborative art

my lovely friend becky (and future roomie!) has set out on a new orleans-themed artistic endeavor. here's a picture of her so you know what she looks like. how hauntingly beautiful is this image? it was shot with a holga, a medium format plastic toy camera. holgas take the most interesting and slightly "off" photos (with some creative editing of course):

image by kelly latos

so becky has taken a number of my photographs of new orleans and created collages out of them! this is how we'll make our millions, i'm sure...

the image of the water tower is another friend's. the smokestacks and building are mine,

taken from the mississippi river on the natchez riverboat. isn't the coloring incredible?

unfortunately i cannot take credit for the beautiful images of bourbon street.

the tutus, however, are MINE!

i especially love the daytime and nighttime scenes taken from a balcony on bourbon

juxtaposed one on top of the other. what an appropriate image of bourbon street,

a boulevard of debauchery and mischief but also incredible beauty and charm.

here comes the sun

now that the sun has finally decided to grace us with its presence here in the chi (hellooooo seasonal affective disorder. there's a reason its acronym is SAD) i ran upstairs to get reacquainted with our rooftop deck. running up there in my pj's probably wasn't the smartest move, considering my fingers nearly fell off, i was shivering uncontrollably and i could see my breath. but that's what we chicagoans do when spring starts to tease us with longer days, sunshine and temperatures above 32 - we drive with our sun roofs open and windows down, swear off heavy coats and mittens, throw the uggs in the closet (all while we shiver and shake and whisper to ourselves, "suck it up. it's spring!").

i can't say what i encountered on our rooftop (which i hadn't seen in easily 3 months) was your typical spring day. but hey, technically there's still 15 days till spring springs.

here is my failed attempt at growing sunflowers organically (using coffee beans as fertilizer). they were supposed to look like this, as encountered by my friend becky at where ya bean, a coffee shop/art gallery/hippy haven in jacksonville, fl. maybe because i started growing them in august and the weather turned to winter in september that they grew a miserly two feet with no petals to boot.

i put these lights up around the deck with painstaking precision (staple guns are not my friends, especially not the old school kind my dad insisted would be safer than the kind that electronically shoot death staples at 100mph. he probably had a point) only for us to enjoy them one (albeit fabulous) time.

you would think we'd be at that corner bar every day. we're not. it's a long story that starts with my bike getting stolen and ends with me getting hung up on by someone by the name of glascott. that's all i'll say.

halsted street.

leaves, won't you please start to grow?

on the road again

i have a love/hate relationship with the cta. i especially love my upass. i've got a ticket to ride, and i don't care* (i will start to care when the semester ends, however. i don't think i'll even get a free ride to graduation). i love that there is a bus or L stop within walking distance of anywhere (the wannabe historian in me also loves that ours is the second-oldest transit system in the americas). i love that the L tracks (as pictured here) encapsulate the loop, create a unique urban landscape, and are cinema-worthy (watch wanted, the dark night, ferris bueller's day off and the fugitive and you'll see what's up).

chicago as pictured from the no-longer-reliable 8 bus

BUT enough waxing poetic on the virtues of the cta. i have some gripes that i would like addressed.

1. enough with the bus bunching! i know, i know, it's a "phenomenon" no one can explain or fix. i find it hard to believe that the city that figured out how to finally get rid of this guy cannot also solve this pesky problem. i need the buses to arrive every 12 minutes, as promised!
2. the blue line (as pictured below) either needs security OR a designated homeless shelter car. i recognize that the blue line is attractive because it's the longest line, but i do not want to be solicited for money whilst reading for my public interest course, in order to be able to represent homeless clients, in order to pay off my $150k debt i accumulated doing so. leave me alone. (see also; i am not alone)
3. please track down the guy who rode the 8 bus that one time and took off his pants. in the seat in front of me. i was not comfortable.
4. i could live with the stops, well-lit though they may be, being less creepy:

of course, things could be worse. THIS could be my ride:

*sorry for the needless beatles reference/cheesy lyric quote. i could have mentioned that i often refer to my upass as my "window to the world." i needed to tone that down for obvious reasons.

definitely a win

first, let me take a brief moment to lament the fact that the olympics have ended. what will i do now that i cannot have a gratuitous tear-fest every night when i watch a video montage of [insert name here]'s struggle to make it to the big games, overcoming the adversity of [some political conflict] in [some country]?

to add insult to injury, can we TALK about the closing ceremonies? um... nickelback? guy who is the lead singer and whose name i do not know, your first pumps and lyrics re: partying 'til we burn the world down were less than inspiring. avril lavigne? are you kidding? first of all, the song "my happy ending" wasn't the greatest choice (especially for the olympic-hopefuls-turned-losers, considering the most repeated part of the song is "so much for my happy ending"). then she sang "girlfriend," which avril clearly fancies to be quite the olympic anthem. more fist-pumps ensued. follow this up with simple plan giving the most boring performance of their lives, and alanis morissette who, aside from looking mighty fine and boobylicious, lip-synched about being a princess, and you have a very disappointing smattering of "talent" to represent canada. ugh.

more about fist-pumps: this made me feel infinitely better after my olympic disappointment:

at first i wasn't going to post this, since it has nothing to do with either chicago or new orleans. but then marty pointed out that this poster was in fact hanging in front of republic, one of the few "clubs" (i use that term loosely) in my soon-to-be new home. this dig at the jersey shore losers, then, was totally justified.