“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson

Kittens, I’m in Virginia!

It’s dark green and lush and humid. Dad and I stopped by our land on the way home to feed the dogs and I watched the fireflies showing off as the light faded and the birds and frogs went crazy with song. Alas there was no sign of the giant owl that has taken up residence since our beaver disappeared (no correlation known). Deer trotted across the country roads as we made our way to the house. I am officially back in the woods.

I want to do about a million things at once – take pictures of all the various early 19th century houses around her, in various states of disrepair, romp with the dogs, go for a run, play the piano for the first time in months, and clean out the fridge (I am taking my household management assignment very seriously). Unfortunately I lost all yesterday to traveling and must work – I only managed to drag my sorry hide out of bed an hour ago. The state of me should have induced Frankenstein-esque, “IT’S ALIVE” choruses from all and sundry but thankfully no one was around. Here are your links!

Two more months, two more months, two more months….

Further proof that our society might be chronically sleep deprived.

Kanye West, the quotable gift that keeps on giving.

Old news at this point, but worth reading up on.

We didn’t choose the (comfy) thug life, it chose us.

So. London. Not as safe as we thought?

Branding and beauty. An interesting look at how marketing changes habits and rituals. I admit I probably won’t be changing my own habits anytime soon, but still pretty thought provoking.

Nerdy tumblr find of the week, featuring medieval books and particularly the doodles in them. I’ve said it a million times but what I love most about history is that people have always been essentially the same. I wrecked my university notebooks during some lectures, and so did monks apparently.

To feed J.’s addiction.

Fun.

Ascot is sartorial Mecca. Whether you’re looking for something to laugh at, admire, or covet, Ascot’s got it.

(Skip this one, Dad.)In Soviet Russia, tampon commercials are…slightly more intense. We have those ludicrous ones of women dressed in white doing athletic stuff. Russia doesn’t have time for that.

“I was a little excited but mostly blorft. “Blorft” is an adjective I just made up that means ‘Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.’ I have been blorft every day for the past seven years.”
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

I’m getting sick. I only get sick when I honestly can’t afford to – and I can’t. I’ve got assignments coming out of my ears and the first leg of a move coming up in five days. Immigration to-do lists are driving me mad. The basement that is our current headquarters is an absolute disaster, which twists me into knots of guilt but every time I try to tackle it, I just seem to make the mess bigger. We’re trying to copy and store everything we own electronically, which is an easy but highly time consuming task.

I have all kinds of blog posts I want to do – serious ones, goofy ones, tales of our adventures of upgrading our tech products after half a decade (at least!) of avoiding doing so, plans for a new camera, you name it. Alas, they all have to wait. In the meantime here are your links – gotta dash!

Yikes!

It’s nice to see a tasteful kind of luxury, with the just the bare necessities…(that is a sarcastic ellipsis).

Equal parts touching and sad.

Hot dog, all one needs is a cardboard box?! That’ll kill some major industries. Kidding, kidding. This is actually quite an interesting program.

Need to hard-core up your tea? I’ve got just the thing.

The last performance is literally days before I arrive in the country. The theatre gods are cruel. (Also I’m hoping for Kerry from Planes, Trains, and Plantagenets – which you should all be reading – to pick up the slack here, because I must experience this even vicariously).

I want to go to there. All the theres. Grab your passports, minions.

Clothes, their prices, their worth, and their impact have been a bit of a pet topic around here lately. Let’s add fuel to the fire with a glimpse of the price difference between the Vogues of 1913 and 2013. Hint: woof!

Destiny is biology? There’s a twist!

It’s something of a mantra around here to take pleasure in small things.

“Birthdays are nature’s way of telling you to eat more cake.”
― Jo Brand

Marriage to J. has expanded my birthday wonderfully. Instead of lasting a single day I can sometimes span that sucker out for a week. For example last Saturday we went to pick up my present (a new iPod – since my last one was nearly a decade old. I’m absolutely flabbergasted by how much memory they have now compared to my dinosaur of a nano), and passing back through Nordstrom on the way to the car I saw the last item on my “To Buy Before Moving” list: high quality leather ballet flats on sale. Which have been ludicrously hard to find, hence their being the last entry on said list. And, because it was my birthday, J. told me to get both colors I wanted. Excellent. At some point this weekend I’ll take advantage of the extra perks corporate America gives you for just being born by using a restaurant’s birthday coupon as well. Some people hate getting older, I rather enjoy it.

In any case, I’ve got copy for a contributor piece due this even so here you go. Out the links come, lickety split!

I love bars for entertaining. Granted I go more for ice cream and sandwiches, but here’s a build-your-own-bar of the adult libations variety that might be fun for summer.

Puns? And history? Lead on!

Good idea. True story, I found one of my favorite novels in a tiny hotel in the Cinque Terre of Italy on vacation on the public bookshelf by the front desk, stocked by the leavings of previous guests. I read it nonstop for a day on the beach and hadn’t finished it but couldn’t bear to leave it behind, so I left the book I’d brought myself in exchange.

The winner of headline of the week is…

Late to the party with this one and don’t even care. Savvy, I’m disappointed not to have discovered this from you, it’s straight up your alley.

Public radio. Bad ass since…well, apparently now.

How do you speak? I have an indeterminate accent due to lifelong globe trotting.

So…basically he got caught? Right?

This man sounds like an absolute loon. Also, I really want to read that book. My Amazon.com wishlist is getting epic.

Great photos!

“If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn’t anything you can’t do if you want to.”
― Jim Henson

Still working away over here. That long weekend was just what I needed – unfortunately I feel like I need another one now. I’m a terrible ingrate.

Luckily this weekend is my birthday, and I’ll officially be in my late 20’s. Surely that means maturity and wisdom will be descending any day now…right?  Here are your links, and have a good weekend. Let me know what you’re up to!

Are your lives insufficiently shiny lately? Never fear. Also, who the hell swims in $75,000 diamonds?

I heartily approve. I’m hoping the trend continues towards women’s fashion as well. I honestly believe that the reason the clothing of yesteryear still appeals to us, aside from the fact that they used better quality materials than the vast majority of “fast fashion” clothes we have these days, is because the clothes fit the wearer. Instead of simply ordering everything in predetermined sizes, you would either make your own clothes or have clothes made for you, your shape, your size. There is nothing like individual tailoring to make a person look put together and even nice, high quality clothing doesn’t benefit you if it doesn’t fit you right. /rant

I’m afraid to share this because J. might insist on a road trip.

PBS for the win!

Dame Helen Mirren steps in.

So, can I blame the Jazz Age for the fact that my husband parcels the year into very distinct and separate sports seasons? It’s the equivalent of a liturgical calendar to the man!

It might be declasse, but I say rock on, Lady Canarvon. Those estates don’t pay for themselves anymore, now that serfs and farm mechanization have brought them down – the inconveniences of upstart peasants! In the words of another of Julian Fellowes characters, Lady Uckfield (from my favorite guilty pleasure novel Snobs), “Running a house like Broughton, or Feltham for that matter, is just slog once the gilt’s worn off. It’s paperwork and committees. It’s arguing with English Heritage inspectors who all hate you for living there and want to make everything as difficult for you as they possibly can. It’s pleading with government departments and economising on the heating. Those houses are fun to stay in. Even ‘London Ladies’ like that. But they’re hard, hard work to own.”

Is no food safe to eat!?

Stop perpetuating these lies!

Nifty.

For the occasional moment of crushing doubt.

I forced myself to put on real pants to avoid slothfulness as I’m doing a bit of work in the morning, and everybody knows pajama pants are the world’s greatest killer of productivity.
– C.

Terribly busy, sorry. Freelance projects to finish, dinner this evening with Angel and her husband who are back from South Korea and Hawaii, and I’ve got a fit in a shower at some point. Nothing but glamor happening over here, kittens. How are you weekends looking?

GOLDFISH CRACKERS. Sorry…did I just reveal an addiction?

Yes to love, yes to life, yes to staying in more! I’m just over a week away from 27…and I endorse this message.

In the dear dead PD days gone by, I became familiar with creepers. Or did I?

English is a language comprised entirely of exceptions rather than rules.

Nope.

Two please. Also, can we hear it for the girls? A couple of weeks ago a girl who invented an app to hide TV spoilers on Twitter and now this.

I love English, I love its history and the rule exceptions, and just how it sounds. But I am 100% in favor of introducing some of these – “grief bacon” in particular – for precision’s sake.

Love these houses, almost taken straight from Homer’s account of Penelope and Odysseus’ bed.

Ladies swag. Regency/Victorian/Edwardian style.

A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.
– Robert Hughes

Boy golly. I just got thrown another wrench, ducklings. Although this is largely a good wrench it is still necessary to recalibrate some plans – which is rather turning out to be my constant state of existence these days. Details about this good wrench to follow pending some scheduling and finalization. My we’ve gotten secretive here at Small Dog Headquarters!

Anyway, I’m editing more website copy and banging out a last minute press release and then reveling in a marathon phone call with Marie. Tomorrow Margot is throwing herself a going away party with dinner and drinks at a favorite restaurant and then going to see what Peregrine called “THE STUPID FLAPPER MOVIE, YAY!” Long pearl necklaces and dark makeup encouraged.

This hotel. “I want to go to there.” American hotels make a big song and dance about their continental breakfasts – usually consisting of stale donuts, separated juices, and crumbly cereal. A real continental breakfast (on the actual European continent) is a magnificent thing by contrast. I can’t wait to have one again.

I may not be a fashion maven, but I am a beauty junkie. Okay, fine, I’m strictly speaking a skin care junkie. But if it came down to choosing between good clothes and flawless skin, I’d take the latter every single time. And a tube of really good red lipstick.

First Richard III and now this, all archeologists should probably report to British car parks immediately, quite possibly just in Leicester. (And of course I get Douglas Adams stuck in my head for the rest of the day. “The car park! What are you doing in the car park?” “Parking cars, what else, dumb dumb?”)

Here’s a tribute to one of the masters of stop motion animation. Which, since it produced Wallace and Gromit (among other great wonders) I will hear not a word against. That plus Jason and the Argonauts is another childhood favorite that everyone needs to see.

Know your insult.

Margot’s throwing a 20’s themed going away bash tomorrow: dinner, drinks, and The Great Gatsby. Tiffany designed several pieces of jewelry for the film and apparently there was an intense amount of security on set. Lots of it isn’t my favorite, but I admit that Daisy’s diamond headband is so unbelievably over the top that I kind of love it.

People. People! Like any other app or site it’s a tool. I don’t have Pinterest angst, but I can see how people can get it by forgetting that it’s a tool and thinking it’s a competition. (Which can sum up a lot of life and cultural problems, frankly.)

How cool.

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
― Confucius

I have neglected you. In my defense I have been editing/tweaking website copy, knocking together an article for a Hawaiian magazine, and creating blogs and posts for DC startups. I’m literally working one end of the country to the other! That and the cold that plagued me for all of April decided to make a return visit, much to my irritation. Here are your links, tell me what you’re up to this weekend!

Loved this short article from Elle. I’ve been thinking a lot about clothes the past year. We’ve invested in building Jeff’s new work wardrobe and I’ve been paring mine down to get rid of old, worn, or out of date pieces. I read a book that really made me rethink my clothing choices and have since been looking to build a wardrobe of high quality clothing that will last long, wear well, and age appropriately – which feels ridiculously difficult in an age of fast fashion to start, compounded by the fact that at my heart I am a jeans and t-shirts kind of girl. I’ve fought it, but there it is. I can do that or a little black dress, but precious little in between with aplomb. It’s a work in process.

…I’m listening…

It may be the packing, storing, shifting, and donating – it could definitely be the nearer and nearer move – but whatever the reason, I’ve got decor on the brain. And assuming that all of our funds will go to rent itself, decorating will probably have to be all imaginary, alas, and we’ll use crates for furniture. Which is where cute pieces like this come in.

This pinterest board exists. You’re welcome.

This week I used coding for the first time for a freelance project. It was laughably simple and small but boy I felt my face light up as it made sense. Then I read this article and tumbled straight back down a well of inadequacy.

Fascinating.

Indiana Jones meets the Wind in the Willows. I know everyone knows them as pests, but I always found it funny to come outside in the morning, when my family lived in the English country and see mounds of dirt that had sprung up overnight from moles tunneling away. The dog would go crazy trying to dig down into them.

Loved this. It’s important.

And the winner of headline of the week is…

Fun for travelers and global enthusiasts a like!

*Snort. Yeah, I can see it.