Some hearts just get lucky sometimes.

All this beauty;
You might have to close your eyes
And slowly open wide
All this beauty;
We traveled all night
We drank the ocean dry
And watched the sun rise…

You can ask about it
But nobody knows the way
No bread-crumb trail
To follow through your days
It takes an axe sometimes
A feather in the sunshine
And bad weather
It’s a matter of getting deeper in
Anyway you can

All this beauty;
You might have to close your eyes
And slowly open wide
All this beauty;
We traveled all night
We drank the ocean dry
And watched the sun rise…

I can see you’re new, awake
Let me assure you, friend
Every day is ice cream and chocolate cake
And what you make of it
Let me just say
You get what you take
From it, so be amazed
Whenever you stop…
You gotta be brave

All this beauty;
You might have to close your eyes
And slowly open wide
And watch the sun rise

-The Weepies

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.”
- Rainer Maria Rilke

A few things that made me smile…

$14, from the bon bon atelier.

I also loved the fun and playful pop art ring plate:

$16. “Dreaming about Love? Know someone else who is? These melamine plates from Pop Ink will prefectly fit the mood. Whether you are waiting for the big diamond ring, or just waiting for cupid to strike, these plates are perfect for you. Just remember, Love is not microwave friendly.”

This is the cutest thing (just a felt magnet), I don’t know what it is, but the face is adorable! From Etsy seller strawberry latte.

Etsy always has tons of cute jewelry (you have to be specific in your search or you’ll get overwhelmed), but I fell in love with this bangle from TrashyChic:

And this precious teddy bear necklace from StickyKitten is just too darling!

More kitchy, girly stuff:

(Also from Trashy Chic)

(From MichellesCharmWorld)

Everything is just too cute! ♥

My personal love affair with a fictional icon

Her name has become synonymous with style and the chic, single-girl lifestyle. She represents the new woman’s funny, sharp, likable everygirl. She’s Carrie Bradshaw, possibly one of the most influential fictional characters to ever influence a generation. Sex and the City played a huge role in revolutionizing the way America views single women; presenting the idea that we do not have to be programmed primarily to achieve the cookie-cutter life targets we’ve been told we should reach for so long (marriage, house, baby, etc). Instead, the bachelorette cherishes single life, independence and freedom. The major storylines in the show, however, do center on not whether or not the characters do in fact marry, have children, or even serious relationships, but how they do it–without losing their sense of self. Being single is not the key, a sense of self is, and Carrie Bradshaw leads the way.

Along with many other women around the world, I have always identified with Carrie. She’s all about opening your heart and your mind at the same time. She’s witty, she’s sharp, she’s sexy–but all in a very accessible, believable way. Mine and Carrie’s “storylines” have coincided as I have watched and re-watched the show and begun to experience my single life as a young woman. While I’m not near my thirties yet, I still feel the inevitable pull from older influences–and society in general–to “settle down,” whatever that means. For Carrie and I, marriage and “happily ever after” is not the be-all, end-all in life. And just like Carrie, I’m a career-focused girl but not necessarily as schooled or as driven as the other three women on the show.

I feel akin to Carrie in many ways. She smokes and drinks and has had a fair helping of casual dating and one-night-stands, but at the end of the day, she’s an old-fashioned girl. She believes in the One, she believes in romance, and most of all, she believes in love. She’s sentimental and reflective. All women are complex, but I relate to Carrie a lot in this way too–her needs and feelings are often conflicted and result in charged and sometimes difficult relationships with men. She’s had to know when to walk away, and it’s bittersweet; especially in her second breakup with Aidan, whom she truly loved and respected, but it just didn’t work, and she couldn’t be what he wanted her to be. It’s never easy to strike a balance. Not just anyone will do. Mischiko Kakutani accused Carrie of “disposing” of men when she reviewed her book in Season Five; I’ve had many of my older friends and colleagues say the same thing to me. But I digress: When searching for a soulmate, one can never be too picky. And so continues the endless search. Carrie was looking for love, real love. “Ridiculous, consuming, can’t live without each other love.” And she found it, as we all hoped and predicted–in Mr. Big.

It’s easy to make a sweeping judgment of the carefree single girl–Carrie and myself included–and throw out terms like “promiscuous” and the like. Aside from the ludicrous societal double-standard, I like to believe that I’ve maintained a moral compass. You can’t look back, you can only learn. Carrie is flawed. I am flawed. We trip over things, we can’t (don’t?) cook, have messy apartments and high credit card bills due to an unshakable shopping addiction. But she’s real–still fictional–but that’s what makes the show so amazing. The writers really, really made Carrie real and relatable to all of us. We can look at her and say: “I’m her.”

If you live in a small, generally unglamorous, unsophisticated city in New Hampshire like I do, you’ll soon discover that it takes a certain amount of distance to find a suitable male counterpart. The first time is always with a certain amount of trepidation; me clutching a crumpled map and my steering wheel in the same sweaty palm. I used to have contingency plans with girlfriends when I planned to meet strange men from the Internet, but not anymore. I suppose if one of my future dates were to machete me to death on the way to apres-dinner coffee, no one would be the wiser. It could be days before someone went back to my apartment, finding it just the way I left it–probably with a stack of dirty dishes and vetoed outfits strewn about the (tiny) bedroom.

I used to save the maps and directions to boy’s apartments, printed from Mapquest.com. I don’t anymore. It’s only the first time that I need a map, anyway–but in the past, I’ve tucked them in the pocket behind my passengers seat. In one instance I found it (ritualistically cleaning my car) days after a fresh breakup and it was, as reminder can be–bittersweet. The best piece of advice is to refrain from retaining physical tokens of the men you date. (I have a startling amount of toothbrushes I use to scour my bathtub…) If you become serious with someone, gifts may become inevitable (but mostly not) and flowers mercifully die within a week and even the nicest guys seldom bring flowers. So basically, you’re all good.

Back to me, clutching the map. Long stretches of dark pavement are excellent for clearing the mind. And you really don’t know where you’ll wind up. Lost, delirious, entertained, in the arms of someone novel and fantastic. It’s anyone’s guess. And drive carefully. But you should probably throw out those maps.

On the “before-I-die” itinerary; my grandparents just went there and I’m sure that the postcard and National Parks maps & guides they sent my way don’t do these caves (300 million years in the making) justice…Carlsbad Caverns:

As you pass through the Chihuahuan Desert and Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico and west Texas—filled with prickly pear, chollas, sotols and agaves—you might never guess there are more than 300 known caves beneath the surface. The park contains 113 of these caves, formed when sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding limestone, creating some of the largest caves in North America.

Note: This is now among my favorite films ever, and as you’ll soon discover (evidenced below) I love, love, loved it!

If you have ever: a) been fired, b) gotten dumped, c) lost a loved one, or d) searched for love and meaning in life, you will surely find something of value to take from Elizabethtown. When Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) loses a multimillion (almost billion) dollar deal on a groundbreaking new sneaker design, he not only loses his job, but also his pretty girlfriend, a bit of his sanity, and just as things begin to look increasingly more grim by the second–he gets a call from his sister that his father has died while visiting home in Kentucky, and Drew is the designated “responsible” family member who must tidy up the loose ends. On his flight, Drew meets a spunky yet (we later find) effervescently jaded flight attendant, Claire (Kirsten Dunst), who is absolutely the glue who carries the entire film.

The movie becomes less about a story about a grieving son coming to terms with his father’s sudden death, or even about an “almost romance,” and more about self-discovery. The film is directed by Cameron Crowe, not overdone but just theatrical enough to prepare for the big, scrapbook/mix-tape/road trip culmination sequence at the end. The light use of some black humor may not connect with every audience, but this film surely balances somewhere between comedy and drama, with some good scenes with Susan Sarandon. Though the film’s surface concept revolves largely around death, the overall effect is far from dark, and most scenes with Bloom and Dunst are playful and sweet, even when shopping for an urn in which to place Drew’s father’s ashes.

Dunst is fantastic as Claire, the sweet perfect creative girl who is off-putting just enough to make her delightful and interesting, perhaps a tad annoying to some; but at the end, she is lovable. Bloom is, for the large part of the movie, rather dull; or rather his character is, but it’s cleverly designed that way, so you can witness the crescendo at the end, which is what the whole movie is about, someone shedding a skin and learning about their insides and what really matters in life.

If you’re anticipating an overly sentimental “chick film” about loss, love, family and redemption, Elizabethtown will most likely exceed your expectations and possibly inspire you to plan a road trip in the near future. The undeniably well-pieced soundtrack, unconventional screenwriting, beautiful scenery and seamless performances bring it to the next level. While certainly not without flaw, Elizabeth town is underrated and definitely worth adding to your Netflix list.

Excellent song that’s satisfying the soaring romantic in me lately. Alison Sudol’s voice is so ethereal and beautiful…One Cell in the Sea is on my wishlist.

One, two, three
Counting out the signs we see
The tall buildings
Fading in the distance
Only dots on a map
Four, five, six
The two of us a perfect fit
You’re all mine, all mine

And all I can say
Is you blow me away

Like an apple on a tree
Hiding out behind the leaves
I was difficult to reach
But you picked me
Like a shell upon a beach
Just another pretty piece
I was difficult to see
But you picked me
Yeah you picked me

So softly
Rain against the windows
And the strong coffee
Warming up my fingers
In this fisherman’s house
You got me
Searched the sand
And climbed the tree
And brought me back down

And all I can say
Is you blow me away

Like an apple on a tree
Hiding out behind the leaves
I was difficult to reach
But you picked me
Like a shell upon a beach
Just another pretty piece
I was difficult to see
But you picked me
Yeah you picked me
♥

Since I absolutely love anything to do with Route 66, vintage road signs and ephemera, 1950’s diners and Americana…here are a few more pictures I’ve gathered. I think these are just so cool!

Oklahoma

Vintage ad for Papaburger (good ol’ A&W, it does not get better my friends…I miss the South!)

Tad’s Chicken n’ Dumplings in Troutdale, Oregon 

The Steak n’ Shake in Springfield, Missouri

A cafe in Oklahoma…love the giant fiberglass figures, such an awesome relic!

Tacoma, Washington

Henry’s in Cicero, Illinois

These awesomely cute angel earrings from Betsey Johnson. I love that they’re done in felt, adorable.

I absolutely love Sailor Jerry’s stuff, and the idea of traditional tattoos. This top is awesome but requires no commitment…whew!