Happy Monday.

art love

"let us be grateful to people who make us happy. they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
-marcel proust

*f & j

This Year's Love

"Maybe that’s what they should be selling in the
fairytales. That we all have the capacity to fall
in love over and over again. That’s much more
beautiful..."

-Jude

a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down*

thanks jude for your charismatic wizardry.

-f

*by sugar we mean whiskey and beer

It's Not. It's Just Not.

life is not a dress rehearsal.
life is not a dress rehearsal.
LIFE IS NOT A DRESS REHEARSAL.

we just figured this out. it took us 24 years, but
this is fuckin' it, man. oh, and we realized this too,
recently. we realized that we don't know much, but
we know this much is true: all you need to be happy
is champagne flowers cupcakes dresses sex girl-
friends puppies and good hair.

the end.

champagne is the new black,
*f

We Dig Music

photo love

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And we lurrve new music. Discovering that new band with that new sound shedding their new souls. Just for us and only for our ears. Them and us, us and them. The song was written for us and we can't stop tapping our toes on the morning train.

So yes. We adore new music, and all that it encompasses.

But ya know what else we love? Songs we know by heart. Songs that take us back to dancing on our daddio's feet around the old green living room at 406 W. 12th St.

So for your listening pleasure, if you ever feel like hearing a good ol' song or two or twelve, a mix for your morning is below. Simply click and listen. Right here in River City...

http://doctormukaka.muxtape.com/

*j

Love You No Shit

(fast-forward to 1:30 to get things going) This vid's for you, Frank.

Sometimes things don't work out. You don't get the job, the guy's not a fit, the CD you bought really only has two solid songs on it, which you could've bought for for $1.99 instead of $5 for each good song.

But that's okay, and you have to know it's okay. Alexander was right. Some days are no good and very bad and beyond. But Annie was oh so right and righteous and above and beyond. So keep waking up for a fresh start, a tabula rasa, a new world, and all that jazz. Eat cupcakes for breakfast and sip champagne here and there throughout your rough and tumble day. Because we don't just say that stuff, we abide by it.* When life gives you crap, get through it, remember to like yourself, and try to laugh when dogs poop. Because that is seriously hilarious.

*j

*Not that we're tipsy the whole time. Geez, get your minds outta the gutters, bellas.

Shoes=Sex.

They just do.

It's true.

And sometimes we wish we were the shortest midgeling in the jungle so that we could put these on our tootsies and say sayonara to being anything close to average! 

*f

Chicago In Our Soul.

being around different ideas & people & change & variety is beautiful & refreshing- isn't it?

*f

Life Resolution #462

art love: our girl sabrina

Our sister and I used to collage the world pinks and blue hues and pretty poetry and oceanic magazine images and everything else under the sun and including the sun. It was color exploding in front of our eyes and we tore it out from everywhere, to mish-mash it into being of our liking, on pages in notebooks in our bedrooms.

It's creating. It's that act of creating that feels so good you feel it in your toes and your eyes and the ends of your hair. You feel alive and happy and fulfilled. You feel like it's California warm outside even when it isn't.

“True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery (author of The Little Prince, which we haven't read since third grade but now totally are dying to)

We don't collage anymore, but we create. We create. Poems and stories and jottings and ideas and anything and everything. Just to create. It's a resolution we want to keep with ourselves forever and then some. Because sometimes it's hard and sometimes the speed of life gets in the way, but we don't want to let it. What a cop out, really, don't you think, moonpies?

*j

L.O.V.E.

And so, love came to us one afternoon, in the form of Didion (portrait-ed above) and her deary sister Beulah.

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Sigh. Swoon. Repeat.

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Now go here to adopt one of your own... Pretty please.

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*j

Just 'Cause.

art love

ad astra per aspera: to the stars, with difficulty.

'Cause isn't that just beautiful?!
'Cause 3 million Kansans can't be wrong.
'Cause we are half Kansan by blood, high school team spirit, and collegiate investments.
'Cause in 1859, the reputable orator, scholar, lawyer, and Secretary of Senate John James Ingalls (known for his sarcasm and wit) believed that Kansas could "aspire to reach the unattainable, and that its dream is the realization of the impossible."
'Cause the motto refers not only to the pioneering spirit of the early settlers, but also the difficult times Kansas went through before becoming a state. The anti-slavery forces and slavery proponents waged battles in the electoral process as well as on the battlefield. Kansas earned the nickname “Bloody Kansas” because of the war regarding slavery, much of which was fought on Kansas' soil.
'Cause the idea represented by the motto itself is very old and occurs frequently in classical poetry, in German set phrases and quotations, and in feudal mottoes of the European nobility.
'Cause we fuckin' love Kansas and what it means to be a Kansan. Especially a Lawrence, Kansan

happy valentine's day kansas, we love you.

*f

2 Cents Thursday

photo love

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“Be brave.

Take risks.

nothing can substitute experience.”
-Paulo Coelho

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Sigh. We love this man.

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*j

Art=Orgasmic

art love

Rob Ryan makes us want to climb trees and skip down hills and hold hands with our best friends while we fall down because we are laughing so hard.

*j

That's the Word, the Official Word

product love

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Not to be all morbid and un-delightful crumpets, but we have an official plea to friends & family:

We hereby announce our official order to have the above deary postcards used as the invites to the party for our passing on when we die.

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Because that is what death is, to us, right now. It is life, it is all that life that went by and was lived and soaked up and danced to and loved and laughed with. Do with it what you will, shed a tear or two or five, but in the end and after the wrenching sadness that feels like it will never go away but is so universal that everyone understands even when you feel they don't, then, after all that, remember the good. Remember the fun, the laughs, the dances, and all the living that was done. Look back on it all, and wow, what a day, a life, a person.

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And that's official, lovies. Don't you forgets it.

*j

Spaced: Our Life 2.0

There are some things that make you feel like you. They make you feel like home.

So just watch, cheries. Just watch. We know you might not be able to right this moment, or in the next 50 moments today. But at some moment on some day (hopefully oh so soon) you will. So watch. Because this little snippet illustrates why we love more than peas love pods the brief but spectacular series Spaced. It's funny, it's soulful, it's pure delightful. And it makes us feel at home, not like this is or was our life but that it almost sort of could be our life.

The clip we've chosen above is the first part of the first episode, so you're not missing one introduction to the lovely world that is Spaced. So watch. And don't watch in an ugh-I-feel-like-I-have-to sort of way, because we're not trying to beat this down onto you or force you to like what we like. But isn't life about new experiences? See now, it's hard to argue with that gem of a string bean.

Okay now dearies, really someone should have barked at us to Skip To the End. Annnd... skip to the end.

*j

Mrs. Roboto

photo love, via Jezebel

Um, we lurv. We covet. We wish she looked a little less Donna and a little more Joan. But whatevs, we heart her and we want her to be our Kid Sister, but without the annoying theme song.



*j

Muse Because You CaNnnn

art love, via Red Aprons

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What? We could...

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*j

What We're Shoveling Into Our Brains Today

photo love

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Right now we're enveloped in stories that make us want to live more adventurous, more daring, more thoughtful lives. It's The Complete Persopolis on ze buses to and from work. It's a little nibble of our grrrl Jane Eyre every morn' compliments of our devoted deary friend Daily Lit. And it's the essays, all true as true can be, of Joan Didion, our idol if we ever had one.

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Sigh. We'll miss them when they're gone, just like we find ourselves pining on occasion for Lyra and her brave prowess. But they're all still with us, aren't they? We s'pose. We know in our minds and usually in our hearts, but not always. Not always. We still miss 'em sometimes, when we didn't bring them with and we're looking for that one passage on that one page, and all we can do it try our best to recollect what words went where on the page.

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*j

The Big Bang of Plans. 2008 Edition

art love

It's here. It's upon us. The new year and all the promises and possibilities it brings with it. It's not so much resolutions as ideas for us, little crumpets. We can swagger, we can swish, we can take on all that we want at the very same time, if we so choose, or we can sit and snuggle with our brand new book. Whatever floats our boats, senoras. Whatever blows our hair back, GI Joes. You get our drift.

So, our thoughts, in a list, which is one of our favorite things to make...

*Make a homemade photo booth. Because we saw one online and it looked really cool, and we've wanted to own (and perhaps even rent out to friends and lovers on occasion) a photo booth for about a year and one-quarter now. It's Go time, moonpies.
*Study religion. All religions. Because we did this once during our senior year of high school at our community college, and totally peaked our interest, but we were just too busy living the high school life and making lists and organizing and saying good-byes and preparing hellos for the next step.
*Finish at least half of the stories we've started. Because starting is soo much easier than finishing.
*Write more love letters. Because we only have today.


*j

Save the Date: Thursdays

photo love

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Sometimes we need a creative outlet every five minutes going 50 miles per hour again and again and again until we climb into bed, rest our little ditty heads and wake up to need it all over again. But alas, we are in our twenties and the pro and the con of this post-My So Called Life decade is that things change fast - what we want when we want it how we need it and what where we fit in the time to do it all and still have time to crack some bottles of champy with the grrrls.

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And so. Instead of the constant splattering of thoughts pictures ideas on a minute-by-hour basis, we'll be jotting things down and saving the coolest new robot love pics and posting 'em in a long long lineup every Thursday morning for you chickpeas.

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We hope this works. We hope this is okay with you (because sometimes we crave your love and acceptance). We hope you'll still pop in and read, share, mull, spy, or all of the above.

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So that's the new plan, zombie-bots. We're not leaving, we're just changing, because that's what you do in your twenties. See you for our date on Thursday. We'll be the girls with black dahlias in our lapels sitting in the corner booth at the back. Peace. Love. Pharrell.

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*j

As a Bug in a Rug

product love

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Awww. Thanks Franzy.

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And yes, our head feels like it's bobbing underwater and our neck gets woozy when we look from side to side and we're sucking down water so fast we should probably just up and move our desk into the bathroom already... But, hey, it's winter and some days we all feel like this, eh, pretty penguins?

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Speaking of animals and animal-like things, how much better would life be with this little dandy, pictured above? It goes by the name of a sealpelt, and don't we wish we were snug as a bug in a rug inside it at this very moment. While enveloped in the adventures of Lyra in The Golden Compass, for suresy. Because that's how we roll. Because baby it's cold outside. Because this little gem of a book is wayyy better than the movie. Because who doesn't love a fantasy book, especially one starring a fierce little girl who is smarter than the average bear?

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So that's where we'll be tonight, that's how we'll be hanging. But we're back, Jack, we're back on the blogg and back to life. And we couldn't heart you precious pies one single bit more without our scarred hearts bursting with joyyy.

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So until next time, until next weeksy, when we're back in full dark force...

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Love, Sex & Baby Bunnies,

*j