To Wed a Graphic Designer...

"We asked 15 friends to help tell the story of how we came to be and created a wonderful digital storybook for our wedding invite" reads Jessica Hische's description of a website describing how her relationship came to be. It's part love letter and part catalog, married in one of the most visually appealing wedding invitations I've ever seen. Click the picture below to check it out.

I'll just be here, trying on different lipstick shades while pretending I have a life. I'll probably watch Say Yes to the Dress while doing it.

Happy wedding season, everyone!

Future London

I'm a sucker for fashion, London and Tom Hiddleston. It's an issue.

This TIME Style and Design story is from March, but I am still unabashedly in love with it. Below is the video that goes with the article - a really neat way of showing off some designer clothing while utilizing Michelle Dockery and Tom Hiddleston's facial expressions and body movements to illustrate a story. Editorial fashion spreads should employ this method more often. I'd definitely pay more attention.

June in Photos

June is almost over, so here's a bunch of photos of things.

 

(L to R; 1: The remains of a St. Phillips strawberry cheesecake; 2: My summer reading list; 3: Backyard hammock and cat hair-covered leggings; 4: Ray-Bans at a beach in the city; 5: Roxie, who is me in dog form; 6: Levon, one of the kittens at the cat adoption centre; 7: Thundershirt. 'Nuff said;
8: Oreo befriending the backyard cat) 

I'll Try Anything Once

I found this song in a trailer for Sofia Coppola's movie Somewhere. It feels really Gen Y of me, but I've been on this Sofia Coppola/Kirsten Dunst kick. I think it began once I found the entirety of Marie Antoinette on YouTube. That was a great afternoon at work.

I'll indulge in more Kirsten Dunst when I watch Melancholia tomorrow. It's such a beautiful movie that it makes its resulting heartcrushing depression sort of worth it. Maybe I'll follow it with a viewing of Bring It On, because why the hell not.

I don't usually listen to The Strokes - other than this song which, lo and behold, I also found via Sofia Coppola. I like "I'll Try Anything Once" (this is the demo version) because it reminds me of when I used to sneak out my window to the roof. I thought I was being so dangerous then, just because I could sit on some roofing tiles staring at suburban houses and the tops of pewter-coloured cars. I was 17, and I hadn't even learned how to smoke a cigarette. Obviously I was 2cool4u.

It stopped when my dad caught me on the roof. He told me it sent people a "bad message." I think it was just because he didn't want to find me with my back broken on the driveway. I guess he was being reasonable...

I'm excited. I'm going to Kingston this weekend to see friends and drink beer on a patio. While the three hour drive is, at times, daunting, I'm glad to see my own bedroom again. I had forgotten what it looks like until I randomly found a picture of it in my phone. I don't know what I'm going to do when I graduate and leave school forever.

Anyways, here's a list of other things I'm excited about. Sorry for the haphazard thought process that is this blog post.

1. HBO's The Newsroom premieres on June 24.
2. Finishing Game of Thrones the book by early next week. Finally.
3. Purity Ring performing on the Danforth in a few weeks.
4. Tycho in Toronto soon after.
5. Downloading and watching the season finale of Girls. I am an awful procrastinator.

Until next time!

Spirit Animal

Every time I watch this video, I wonder out loud whether it's okay that my spirit animals are often very awkward women who, in all likelihood, eat too much steak.

I ate a 12 ounce steak once. My father is an avid BBQ-er. Even with all his guidance and genetics, I have yet to master the medium rare filet mignon. He's probably really disappointed in me, right? Right?!
 
Happy Father's Day!

Not About Love

I know people typically like to mope to Fiona Apple, or wail along with her while driving at high speeds down a mostly-empty freeway. It's cool. I've done it too.

When I was in the tenth grade, and first discovering what music could be outside of Destiny's Child (who, don't get me wrong, are awesome as well), I would borrow CDs from the library. This was before I knew how to download and torrent, mind you. I had also been banned from using Limewire on the computer. Whatever.

Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine was one of these CDs. While other girls let her sing their soul out, I listened to her while doing math homework in my basement. I associate her with #feelings and all of that, but those images will always and forever be tied to trigonometry and quadratic functions. Sorry, Fiona.

Bookish

"Maybe you'll fall in love with me all over again."
"Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?"
"Yes. I want to ruin you."
"Good," I said. "That's what I want too."

Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms is sitting on my bed right now. I am so excited to read this book. My giddiness at new books pairs well with my dream of being an old woman who goes on neighbourhood walks, drinks gin, and reads all day long. It's not a bad future.

I had a dream last night where I was at some sort of fashion show with Alexa Chung, Imogen Poots, and various other glamorous women. Beforehand, I ran into Dree Hemingway. She's Ernest Hemingway's great-granddaughter, a fashion model, and actress. In my dream, she was a fabulous, gay man who was a prolific writer. Apparently, I had sent him a short story of mine. He told me he loved it, while smoking a cigarette, wearing sunglasses and an ascot while sitting on a low garden wall.

Not too long after, someone yelled to us that Ernest Hemingway had ruined the Toronto Star by writing for it. I screamed some expletives at them and probably threw something. 

What is my mind.

Things I've Been Listening To

Here's some music that's been making the rounds on my iPod.

In reference to the post title, here's a Reddit thread I've been lurking. It's basically a huge discussion/rant on why we can(not) end sentences with prepositions. My grammar rule-loving heart quivered.

Until next time!

"The beginning and end of everything."

"No personality as strong as Zelda’s could go without getting criticisms and as you say she is not above reproach. I’ve always known that. Any girl who gets stewed in public, who frankly enjoys and tells shocking stories, who smokes constantly and makes the remark that she has 'kissed thousands of men and intends to kiss thousands more,' cannot be considered beyond reproach even if above it. But Isabelle I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity and her flaming self respect and it’s these things I’d believe in even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn’t all that she should be.

But of course the real reason, Isabelle, is that I love her and that’s the beginning and end of everything. You’re still a Catholic but Zelda’s the only God I have left now."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald's letter to a friend, found here