April

This month has been a busy month. We have been up to stuff. Here’s some glimpses.

We ate pizza at Napolese and it was delish. Hubs is counting th days until we go again. (Although, once we have pizza in Italy I fear that Indianapolis pizzerias might not have hold the same appeal.

 

We saw The Hunger Games. I was PSYCHED! Hubs was skeptical. Sorry for the poor photo quality.

 

We explored some new places…

 

My parents came to visit and we got to meet YunKyung (college student from Korea who is staying with them for a few months to learn english.) We went to the IMA.

 

I bought a bike helmet after a good friend of ours was hit by a car while she was biking to work. She suffered a lot of broken bones but luckily suffered no head trauma.

 

Harper took naps and walks. (Nap pictured, walks not.)

 

We celebrated my sister-in-law’s 18th birthday with some BBQ

 

We finally ate at Cafe Patachou! Their blueberry crumble coffee can’t be beat.

 

We saw David Sedaris and Mike Birbiglia at Clowes. Above picture is showing our FRONT ROW seats for Mike’s “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend.” It was hilarious. “Laugh so long and hard that you can’t make any more sound” hilarious.

So there is our month. And May will bring even more exciting things our way!

BFFs (Best Fashionista Friends)

My closest girlfriend happens to live in Colorado. We see each other MAYBE 2 times a year, which is not cool. We share a love of style, so we recently decided to start sending each other morning outfit pictures.

I usually end up regretting this decision when she sends me HER pic because I undoubtedly find her outfit cuter than mine, and then I become a little bitter. However, its not her fault that she is so effortlessly chic. So I usually forgive her. And she sweetly assures me that mine looks great as well.

Here is a little glimpse into our exercise…

It helps me stay inspired and motivated to make a bit of effort in the morning, and it makes us feel like we are more a part of the other’s daily life.

What about you, friends? What unique traditions do you have with YOUR besties?

A sprinkle of success and a pinch of failure: a recent recipe

Hey everyone… sorry it has been so long.

This will be brief, but you should start seeing more regular posts from me. I will have more free time now that I have FINALLY wrapped up my masters program. I haven’t talked about it much here because it has taken me an EMBARRASSINGLY long time to get it done as I have taken breaks between some classes. But, in celebration of the dang thing being done, I figure I will shout it from the rooftops: I TOOK A FREAKING LONG TIME TO FINISH THIS THANG BUT STICK A FORK IN IT ‘CUZ ITS DONE!

Yay. That’s my success.

Now on to my failure. I’m gonna be vague here, because my pride is a little hurt and I am licking my wounds… so let’s just leave it at “Leslie failed at something.” Wow that sounds super pompous; I actually fail at things all the time. But this thing was kinda big. And I’m not totally sure how to correct it. (Curious yet? I know I would be. I promise it isn’t anything cool.) So, right now I am seeking confidence, focus, and energy. I am trying to keep myself from pointing fingers. I am trying to remember that this is a growth opportunity.

(this will help you grow, this will help you grow, this will help you grow, this will help you grow, this will help you grow, this will help you grow) ~Leslie’s self talk~

So, I’m gonna conquer you, sleepless nights! I’m gonna show you who’s boss, you persistent tears! I’m gonna do cartwheels instead of curling into a ball. And I am going to let this whole darn thing make me a stronger, more wise and compassionate person.

Winston Churchill spoke about success in the context of failure:

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

So readers… if any of you happen to be feeling discouraged, take heart. Because it is not about the number of times we fall but rather how many times we get up.

Our visit to the “Bloom.”

Does anyone ever say that? Call Bloomington “The Bloom?”

Other title considerations were: “Bloomington in full bloom,” and “Our Bloomin’ Trip down South.” Hopefully I made the right choice.

Anyway, we went to Bloomington on Saturday to see Marc Maron perform. Marc Maron is a comedian who makes a podcast called “WTF” where he interviews mostly comedians. Its gained in popularity recently, but Hubs has been a fan for a while. Saturday afternoon we packed up Harper and headed down to the famous Indiana college town to do a little browsing, some eating, and hopefully some hearty belly-laughing.

We ate at a place called Sweet Grass, which is a popular “southern cooking” spot in the college town. Hubs LOVED his collard greens and fried shrimp po-boy, and my roasted chicken was ok. (The show-stealer for me was the cornbread.) So, while the meal was a great value and tasted PRETTY good, it did not make me a raving fan the way it did for Hubs.

Finally, we ended up at the comedy attic to see Marc Maron perform. We got there EXTREMELY early, and managed to get one of the very front spots. This placement resulted in a lot of intense eye contact with Maron (he is a pretty intense guy anyway, but man does he have a stare.) Hubs and he also had a very small exchange, where Marc addressed him during a portion of the show where he was discussing snap judgments he makes about people. He told Hubs he had created an entire life for him in a few seconds, which included cats and eternal gratitude for the woman sitting next to Hubs. THAT WOMAN WAS ME! Marc Maron just gave me lifelong ammunition. “Honey… remember when Marc Maron told you to be eternally grateful for me?”

“Bent” and me: It’s meant to be

One doesn’t wake up in the morning expecting to fall in love.

But friends, the heart wants what the heart wants. And right now, my heart wants me to pack my bags, grab Hubs and the darlings (darlings=pets) and move to Venice, CA. So I can live in a house like the one featured in the new NBC show “Bent.” Actually, I think I would like to step right into the show.(That’s possible, right?)

This show has everything. A craftsman bungalow. Great style from Amanda Peet. Rapid-fire banter between she and the lovable scoundrel of a contractor. A blooming love story. A cranky old man played by Jeffrey Tambor. (I don’t really care about the last part, but it will keep Hubs watching.)

The buzz is that the show might not make it. Which seriously makes me want to cry/start tweet-blasting NBC begging to keep it around. The marketing of the show was all wrong, and I would not have even watched it had Hubs not DVR’ed it. So, if you are a fan of a great rom-com with quality style AND house inspiration, go watch it. (Available on NBC.com.)But- if it isn’t meant to be, you can be sure I will watch while I can.

While this smacks of a sponsored post, rest assured that I am nowhere important enough in the blogosphere to warrant NBC asking for my endorsement. This post is written from my heart.

(That window seat caption is supposed to say “WOULD” spend here, but I’m just not in the mood to go correct it in photoshop. Let’s all just pretend that it is right and move along, shall we?)

Loyal readers!!! Let us band together to save the show! Stay tuned for details on the letter-writing campaign!

(I’m just kidding. I’m far too lazy to do anything like that. I WILL cross my fingers and wish really hard that the show will stick around. C’mon NBC… just cancel Whitney or something.)

The girl with the pink hair

 

(Not to be confused with the girl with the dragon tattoo. They aren’t related.)

The pink-haired lady happens to be my bestie Sara, who lives in Colorado. And, if I want to be really specific, not ALL of her hair is pink… just the tips. Aaaaaand, if I want to be really honest, I might want to get dip-dyed hair myself next weekend. I’m just saying. This is the person I copy. (This is also the person who designed and created this beautiful blog page that I peck away at. Check her out here.)

Anywho, she came over yesterday and we had a grand little time until she left a few hours ago. (Boo!!!)

Last night we had dinner and drinks in Broad Ripple proper, and today we were gals about town… we hit downtown (if you call driving there and then realizing we didn’t really have time to be there,) Fountain Square, Castleton, Nora, and Broad Ripple. Whew! If you are not from Indianapolis that was probably all gibberish to you. Sorry. I added some links so you can see some of what I’m talking about.

(Umm… the camera is straight ahead, ladies.)

I would consider the highlights of the day having lunch at Siam Square (which I have been wanting to try forever) with her former colleagues, finding a little vintage shop gem in F.S., and generally being able to speak our special form of fashion/design/aesthetics gibberish all day long with no glares from Hubs. (He had to work. Sometimes when he is with us and we get knee-deep in discussing the merits of peter pan collars he starts to get perturbed.)

We talked a lot about friendship while we were together- for some reason every time I see her I feel desperate to have her answer the “We’re still best friends, right?” We have a unique friendship in that we do not stay closely in touch all that often, because we both have very busy lives and each HATE the phone. And despite the fact that we ALWAYS pick right back up where we left off, I ALWAYS want her to verbally affirm that she is feeling the same. Weird, huh? Just a tad insecure, I guess. Does anyone else watch “The Real Housewives of Atlanta?” If so, do you know the best friend contract that Cynthia gave Nene to sign? I think the show thought viewers’ reactions would be like, shocked by that… but I was watching totally nonplussed. Seemed normal to me. Are your eyebrows raised? Don’t judge me.

I’ve found it to be a lot more difficult to establish very close bonds with new friends in my adult life. Hubs and I don’t have that many opportunities to interact with new people close to our own age, so it’s tough. I don’t necessarily want for TONS of new friends, but it might be nice to have a few new girlfriends to go see chick flicks with; Hubs has had about all he can take.

But, no matter if one makes some new sparkly friends or not, nothing replaces those friends that have graduated to a sister level, which Sara has. We have been close since college, supported each other through a LOT personally, and we know and love the stuff we each are made of.

Weekend Snapshots

Mexican restaurant, Hubs’ highschool reunion, and hula-hooping. Sadly, I have no pictures of the hula-hooping. (However, there IS a video. I just don’t have it in my possession. Yet.)

(Can you spot Hubs? I would say “he’s the guy in the pink shirt,” but there were a lot of dudes rocking pink shirts last night.)

If you look closely, he was making the “I’m about to sneeze face.” Also, this was the only one taken with a real camera. Sorry for the crappy quality of the others.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this post might not be my most interesting post. I’m contemplating doing a “Weekend shots” post regularly, but I’m not totally convinced that these will be much of a hit. If you feel so inclined, you can comment with your opinion on the matter.

Love, Lessyloo

Mini House Tour

Hi folks! As an avid reader of Apartment Therapy, I have always fantasized about having our house featured on the site. While I don’t know if that dream will ever come to fruition, I DO have a blog myself, and dagnamit, I’m a-gonna post something!

This includes the never-seen-before new lavender dressing room, people. I’ll probably do a more detailed post on that later.

The bedding is new, from Anthropologie. Hubs hates it. I am working on changing his mind.

What do you think of the paint color? I am really pleased. As you see, we have a very bold color in our guest room, so I wanted something softer for the dressing room. AND I wanted something slightly feminine, but not so much so that Hubs would veto.

And this is where we lay our heads at night! The duvet is vintage Thomas O’Brian from Target. I got it on sale. $25. For a king size. (Can you feel the self-satisfaction emanating from your computer?)

Oh, and we have a bathroom up in the second floor as well, but it is not house tour-worthy. Hopefully some day.

Welp… that’s all for the house post. Please don’t come and break into our house to steal our wonderful duvet covers. (Oddly, that has always been a fear of mine regarding posting pictures of our interior: that some evil thief will happen upon my blog and see something he wants, use his clever thieving tricks to determine where we live, outsmart our alarm system, and take our stuff.)

Date Night (and other stuff)

(That’s what they call “windswept,” people.)

This has been one lovely little weekend. (And I was in serious need of it.)

Our adventures?

• Venturing downtown on the same night as a monster truck rally (almost as popular as the superbowl)
• Painting a room a lovely shade of lavender
• Striking up a conversation with a charming fellow named Helmut Fortense.

Saturday morning we headed up to Nora (section of the city north of us) because I had discovered the perfect shade of paint for my dressing room (aka the adjoining room to our bedroom that Hubs has temporarily allowed me to call mine.) After numerous Pinterest searches I thought to type in the google search term “Best paint colors for north facing rooms.” Sometimes, when in a bind, its best to consult the google. Happily, the very first result that popped up helped guide me along to path to divinity. (Divinity by Pratt and Lambert.) It required the trip to Nora because only a few select vendors offered that type of paint in Indianapolis proper. Turns out, that vendor gave us great advice, and we might have found our new place to buy paint. (Everyday Paint and Wallpaper, #happycustomer.)

While on the trip, we decided to check out a little design store that Hubs had heard about on NPR: Form + Function. Given the outside appearance, I was not overly optimistic about what we were about to walk into. However, I greatly misjudged the situation… we found an incredible selection of mostly modern furniture, lighting, and home accessories. And best of all, we found Helmut. Though we quickly realized that everything was out of our “I’ll just pick something up today” price range (it was in our “Well, I guess I could buy that if I diligently saved for 2 years” price range,) we had the most enjoyable experience chatting with the shop co-owner. He immigrated from Germany quite some time ago, to sell high-end vehicles in the Midwest. After retiring from the auto industry fifteen+ years ago he decided to open the shop. We talked about his interest in design, his decision to be in Indianapolis, the general interior design landscape in Indianapolis, and various items around the store. He was sophisticated and kind, and we both left wishing we could sit next to him at an imaginary dinner party and become fast friends. (We then chastised ourselves, claiming we were in no way sophisticated enough for his company.) But to all of you out there in Indianapolis… stop in! It’s by the Whole Foods in Nora.

After an afternoon of painting we hopped into the mini and headed south for an evening at the theater. (Insert slightly affected and nasal english accent.) We were going to see God of Carnage at the IRT. The theater staff were actually really great because we had originally purchased tickets for next weekend, which happens to be Hub’s highschool reunion. Tickets can’t be returned or swapped for a different night once purchased, so we thought we were out of luck. Hubs happened to tweet about it, to see if anyone wanted the tickets, and someone from the IRT contacted him and offered that we could come another night, AND leave the original tickets at the box office for our friends or family to use. So… really cool. Unfortunately, the enjoyable play was overshadowed by the awful valet service we received after the show. So, I can’t honestly say it was an overall wonderful experience but we are happy we went, all the same. (Like that teaser about the valet catastrophe? I’m probably not going to go into it because no one likes a complainy blogger, but let’s just say a 45 minute wait for a $30 valet fee leaves Leslie in a blind rage.)

And now, I am finishing up my new Sunday afternoon photoshop and blogging ritual, about to go clean some litterboxes.(So… ending on a high note.)

Love, lessyloo

The week’s adventures ~ enchanting sorbet and fixed up peepers

Hello! Many of you might not know that over a year ago Hubs and I vowed to one another to be more adventurous; to venture out and try new things. Nothing earth shattering… just a personal reminder to ourselves that we cannot spend EVERY weekend in our jammies.

I’m going to try to make this a regular thing. “This” meaning an update on adventures. Just promise me to not laugh at the things we call adventures. I’m not promising sky-diving. It might be a new type of sushi. Or a new experience. Or, in the instance of this week, a new visual acuity rating (for Hubs.)

My hubby followed in my footsteps this week and braved the laser to correct his vision. I wasn’t sure I would ever see this day come- after watching my procedure last year he looked pretty green around the gills. This is the same guy who passed right out one day while watching the nurse dig around in my arm to draw blood. (He claims that episode was a result of too many energy drinks that day.) But regardless of his questionable tolerance of an “ick” factor he marched right in to the surgery room and marched right back out 10 minutes later with corrected vision. And now his eyesight is better than mine. Which only bothers me a little bit.

Our other big adventure was accidentally sitting in the front row at a Steve Rannazzisi show. We have always watched that front row with a mixture of awe and horror: close enough to feel like you have spent an hour practically hanging out with the comedian like buds, but close enough to be the target of the dreaded comedian small-talk. Those of you who have attended comedy shows might know what I’m talking about… in some instances those front row people can practically be heckled if they answer a question in the wrong way. As soon as Hubs and I realized where we were sitting, we started practicing our answers to some of the common questions we have heard asked. Because… we are awesome like that. And after all that work, we were totally skipped over. I felt relieved and a little let down.

Mini adventures: we tried a new “Top 50 in Indy” restaurant: H2O Sushi, and Hubs called the sorbet we had for dessert “enchanting.” We got a new little rug. I put some handwriting in my blog photo collage. See it? Yeah, that only took me 2 hrs.

And that’s all, folks. I’ve gotta go do some stuff.