flaming lips cover madonna

i love the flaming lips. check out this cool cover they did of madonna's "borderline."

The flaming lips Borderline
by cringer

i love this band

the thermals.
also they're from portland, my current favorite city.
also, i think i just heard this song on the season finale of chuck.

popsicles

 
this morning sweet m. and little c. came out wrapped up in their favorite blankets. "wrap us up," sweet m. said, "we're popsicles." (she did mean that she wanted them to look like popsicles, but it was quite chilly outside so she could've meant that too.) i kept wrapping and the blankets kept sliding off.
after a while the blankets slid for the final time, and little c. tripped on his.
"look mom," says m., "little c. melted."

our lives lately

 

have you been watching...

masterpiece classic lately? little dorrit has been on for the last few weeks, and i'm loving it. it's making me glad i have a t.v., even though sometimes i think we should just give ours away.

here is the synopsis from the pbs masterpiece website:

Amy Dorrit's (Claire Foy) gentle spirit has never been dampened by the confining walls of the Marshalsea Prison she's lived in her whole life. Despite the dark shadow of debtor's prison, Amy lovingly cares for her father William Dorrit (Tom Courtenay), the longest serving inmate. A possibly redemptive light unexpectedly shines in the form of Arthur Clennam (Matthew Macfadyen), who has been left with the intriguing threads of a mystery after his father's death — threads that will intertwine his family and fate with the Dorrits. Clennam's exhaustive search for answers involves murder, fortunes gained and lost, the upper echelons and lowest dregs of society, and most surprising of all, a tender romance. Adapted by Andrew Davies (Bleak House, Pride and Prejudice), Little Dorrit, based on the book by Charles Dickens, is a sprawling story as timely as it is moving.

in most of dickens' stories that i've read/seen produced there is at least one character that is just amazingly good. you know, the kind that almost seem too good to be true; completely selfless, sweet, kind, concerned for everyone, devoted. in this novel/movie there are at least two of those characters. 

when some writers attempt to create characters like this it can end negatively. the person seems too perfect, maybe a little "goody two-shoes." but i really enjoy they dickensian characters i've seen who are like this. amy dorrit and arthur clennam in this story, agnes in david copperfield, and a lot of others i can't really think of right now. but i find that when i'm reading these stories i'm inspired and i want to be a better person. i want to work industriously and serve selflessly. plus, let's face it: no one can interweave dozens of characters and plot lines in such an entertaining and convincing way as dickens. (in my opinion, at least.)

the last of the little dorrit series is on tomorrow night, sunday, on pbs. or you can view the entire series online, i believe until may 3rd.

to my not-so-little-anymore c.

so, you've been two for a while now. the last couple months you've finally started sharing your thoughts with us verbally, and it's been so much fun. i knew you would start talking when you wanted/needed to, and you did!
i love it when you say, "knock knock" and when i say, "who's there?" you just say "knock knock" again.
i love it that when you see the scab on my knee you say, "kiss?" and then you kiss my knee to make it better. and when we were reading tonight, and you saw a picture of a girl with a frown, you said, "sad?" and then you gave her a kiss, too.
you love having books read to you. you love to go outside whenever anyone will take you. you love "yo gabba gabba." you love mandarin oranges (and especially the juicy syrup they come in.) you love toast for breakfast. you still love snuggling with me in the morning and you better bet that i'm going to encourage that for as long as i can.
i love you little man!

hooray!

this video of a lady named susan boyle singing on "britain's got talent" made me so happy. trust me, you have to watch it. it made my day, possibly my week.
sometimes you see things that just make you think, anything is possible. and life is lovely.

via

easter weekend, part two

so here's the productive part of the weekend. (sorry i didn't get it posted yesterday; internet problems. actually it'll be a miracle if this post works!)
after looking unsuccessfully all over our relatively small town for a sofa, we decided to look in a larger metropolis to see if we could find what we were looking for (all right, i'll admit it. i'm extremely picky when it comes to interior design, especially couches.) we finally ended up at ikea, where we weren't expecting to find a couch but had a few other items to attend to: bookshelves, curtains, side table.
we had looked for a couch at ikea before and had been less than enthusiastic about their options. but this time they had a new design that we ended up getting! it's not exactly what i had wanted, but it has the basics: good lines, sturdy frame, removable cushion covers that can be dry cleaned, a modern and clean look.


sweet m. saw me taking pictures and wanted to model. isn't she cute?
anyway, now there is only painting, picture-hanging, reorganizing furniture, and a few other minor details to attend to. i'm excited that our front room is FINALLY coming together!

easter weekend, part one

our easter weekend was delightful and highly productive. we decided to head down to my parents' house because sweet m. had monday off of school and we hadn't seen my mom and pops for a good bit of time while they were down under helping nene with her babe.
so off we went! on saturday we had a lovely dinner with lots of family about, complete with lots of chatting afterwards. (my oldest brother is a huge lost fan like myself and we had a great time analyzing the show.) sunday was more quiet, with just the kiddies and the grandparents; the kids got their baskets before church and we had an indoor easter egg hunt after. (the ground was kind of muddy and not conducive to little children in their easter best running amuck.)



my parents have the most lovely magnolia tree in their front yard. i got a little camera happy with it.

my older brother is a sweetie with kids. little c. loves playing with him!

little c. had just woken up when we had the easter egg hunt. when we told him to go find his eggs he started crying! but luckily when he found the candy inside he perked right up.

sweet m. loved her hello kitty easter basket from last year so much that she played with it all year long and wanted to use it again this easter! i was happy to oblige!

*tomorrow: part 2 of our riveting saga...

one of my favorite things: free stuff!

have you heard about mysavings.com? i can't remember where i heard about this gem of a website, but it's amazing! they collect links to free samples all over the web so you can just go on their site and find out about samples and coupons for all sorts of things!

even easier, you can sign up for the daily email and almost everyday you'll find in your inbox a list of great free samples. for instance, today i signed up to receive a free sample of a mr. clean magic eraser, a special kind of paint that you can paint on any surface to turn it into a white board (like chalkboard paint!), and a free year's subscription to metropolitan home magazine! 

it almost sounds too good to be true, but i've been doing it for a while now, and so far i've received most of the things i've signed up for. (i don't keep track of the samples i sign up for so i'm not exactly sure about missing any.) but my favorite is the magazines! so far i've received multiple copies of: body + soul, martha stewart living, woman's day, parents, popular photography, prevention, and i think a couple of others that i'm forgetting. 

try it out if you like! 

(p.s., sometimes they ask you to fill out a short survey and/or enter a friend's email address. as far as i know, they've never contacted the friends i've referred, and the surveys are really simple.)

no blue sky

today is a grey, windy day. i woke up sad. do you ever have a day like that? sad for no reason kind of days? it definitely makes me feel like listening to the weepies.

especially this song, "can't go back now" from their album hideaway. it's a little sappy, but for some reason it really works for me. especially today.
anyway, i l like the song better than the video, but the video is extremely cute:
enjoy!

someday...

we will build our "dream" house. it doesn't have to be fancy, but i would like to incorporate this sweet idea into our design.

via bloesem kids

i win!

so i guess the point of this post is to encourage you to enter giveaways on blogs. even if you're the kind of person who feels like you never win anything (like me.) because i just won one! recently artist jennifer judd-mcgee of the lovely blog swallowfield had a giveaway to celebrate the second anniversary of her etsy shop. i left a comment, and ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing, i WON two of her gorgeous prints! my choice! i chose the simply beautiful

ledger diptych

and the bright and cheery

six little birds. this one's destined for sweet m.'s room!

my heart belongs to red

here are some bits of red loveliness that i've been noticing/wanting lately:

tea and toast butter dish


our love is here to stay limited edition print by enormous champion

quick turn dhurrie rug by john robshaw


party girl wallpaper by flavor paper


flock poster at good shape design