Monday, August 31, 2009

It's A Wonderful Life and the Charleston!

Last night when I was watching the newest episode of Mad Men with María, there was a scene where everyone is at a party and dancing and they do the Charleston!! I basically instantly started freaking out in the Campus Center because the Charleston is the dance they do in It's A Wonderful Life and then the gym floor opens up and everyone falls into the pool and George and Mary fall in love and it is the most adorable thing ever! Now that I've seen that dance in It's A Wonderful Life AND in Mad Men, I obviously have to learn how to do it so that my life can be perfect.


It's A Wonderful Life is one of my favorite movies of all time, and it is the most adorable movie ever because it is full of happiness and cute things and Christmas-y goodness and James Stewart and my family always watches it every Christmas, because that is what everyone should do. If you haven't seen it, regardless of whether or not you actually celebrate Christmas, shame on you! And shame on your parents for not making you watch it as a child! If you are one of the people who hasn't seen it, or even if you have, watch this scene because it is the dancing scene and also probably my favorite scene in the whole movie! Start it at the 3:10 mark and you'll see what I mean.



Doesn't it look like the most adorable movie ever?!! The correct answer is, "YES!!!" I am probably going to watch this movie tonight, because I own it on DVD and because I haven't watched it in a while and because it is never too early to start watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music! Even if you don't own it, the whole thing is on YouTube, so go watch it anyway!

Love, Jillian

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Rewarding Myself With Online Shopping

Today was basically the most exhausting day of my life. First of all, I woke up inside my Arizona Green Tea bottle, and I've decided that even though I don't hate the color, I don't love it either, and true love is really important to me in regard to things like paint color. So, I am definitely repainting it, and my tentative color choice is a really pale yellow. This means that, because of the combination of the Asian characters that some former resident painted on the windows in my door and the color of my walls and the rice cooker and Japanese, chef's knife I have hidden in my closet and the fact that I live here, my room will basically become a four-walled Asian joke. It also means that I will have to put on like two coats of primer, which I am not happy about.

But! Back to my day. I'm back at Bryn Mawr early to train the new, baby freshmen at the cafe, and I'm also here to train to become a T.A. for the Italian department! That means that every second of my life is scheduled until classes start on Monday. Today, I went to work at 7:30 (which felt like 4:30 because I haven't gotten used to the time zone yet), then I got off at 9 and went straight to the T.A. training session, which I had to leave at 10:30 to go to the Academic Fair for all three hours and tell new, baby freshmen about how awesome it is to take Italian and almost lose my voice in the process. When that was over and everyone else went to lunch at 1:30, I had to go back to the T.A. training session, because they were just getting back from lunch at 1:30, and then I was there until 4 when I met with the new Italian professor so that she could fill me in on what I'd missed while I was at the Academic Fair.

Basically what I'm saying is that I really think I earned some sort of not-entirely-necessary online purchase, and this is what I bought!

Kimchi Blue Stripe Floral Fit N Flare Tunic

Deena & Ozzy Suede Zip Bootie

I also bought myself a pair of rain boots, but I actually need those. And, now that I have this dress coming, I will have to buy some more hangers. Right now I have exactly the right amount of hangers for all of my dresses (including all six grey dresses--I have no shame) and jackets and blouses and skirts, but once that dress arrives, I will be one hanger short, and wrinkled dresses are not adorable! Hopefully it will all get here soon and it will be just as adorable in person!

Love, Jillian

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Lula

There are all sorts of really silly things that I do when I'm alone and have no real plans. A couple of weeks ago, while talking to Christopher, I went through some of these things. These thing are ridiculously particular. For example, I love to brush my hair while watching episodes of Twin Peaks. This doesn't mean that I love to brush my hair when I'm watching TV shows, not at all. I would never brush my hair if I was watching The Wire or later episodes of Dawson's Creek, but I totally used to do it while watching Party of Five. But nothing is as perfect as watching Twin Peaks and brushing my hair, I can't explain why I like this so much. Anyway, now I sound like I'm some crazy girl, but I'm sure everyone has little things that they do that seem pretty ridiculous to other people. And while I could go on and on listing these activities, I won't, for fear that you'll all stop reading Flower Farm. But the whole point of this story brings me back to the subject of this post, Lula.


Here's why: I love "reading" foreign magazines which I can't understand while eating pickles and painting my nails. My favorites are Russian magazines, it's strange. It is ridiculous for SO many reasons. First off, I don't speak Russian, I can't read Russian, I don't have any weird obsession with Russia like I do with Sweden or Iceland. I just LOVE Russian magazines. In fact, I once tried to convince a boy I dated to bring me back piles of them when he went to visit his family. That's how sick I am. (I'm pretty sure he declined solely because he somehow knew I did something crazy with them.) It's also strange because I like to mix these in with me reading things I actually understand like Italian Vogue, Jalouse, and Numéro. BUT I don't ever do this with American Magazines. EVER. And I only "read" Korean Vogue with Vogue Nippon and German Vogue. It's a scattered mess, but it's also a real system. And this whole pickles and nail polish thing makes me sick if I think about it. Plus, I need to balance everything so that nothing is ruined. It's quite a skill/mess.


Anyway, Lula is my favorite magazine, and it's not even Russian! I used to get really excited flipping through issues of L'Officiel Russia or Russian Vogue, but it is so much better when I am also flipping through Lula. That's because nothing can be as precious as Lula. The name is cute, the covers are always darling, and the last one had Chanel Iman on the cover! Of course Zooey Deschanel has been in Lula, I mean it's a given. But Lula is so cute that I even liked the spread with Kirsten Dunst. And the truth is that Kirsten Dunst sort of annoys me sometimes. But not in Lula, no! She looked adorable. I tried to think of my favorite issue or spread or anything but I can't pick just one. There are only 8 issues out (the 9th is out in September) so you should try to get your hands on one/some.

I also really like that Lula doesn't have 3000 ads. It makes me a lot happier. Plus this magazine is full of pastel colors and I can't help but love them. It's sick. Perhaps that's why I've decided that my new room is definitely going to be a light pink/peach color. It'll be like living in a grapefruit or with a My Little Pony. Personally, I love both, so I guess I can't go wrong.

The point of this whole post is that little silly habits aren't so cute, but when they involve adorable pictures of girls in amazing clothes, they can be. Sort of.

Love, María

Leonbergers

Ever since I was little, I've wanted a really big dog. I used to especially want a Great Dane, but ever since I saw one in Sunset like a month ago, I've wanted a Leonberger! They are adorable, and I need to think about something other than how the color I chose to paint my dorm room makes me feel like I am living inside an Arizona Green Tea bottle.


Too cute, right? Leonbergers are taller than I am when they stand up, and they have fluffy, adorable hair, and they love to cuddle! Basically, the Leonberger is my perfect dog AND my perfect boyfriend.

Love, Jillian

Monday, August 24, 2009

Jóvenes y Sexys

I keep trying to finish my posts, but it's hard since I'm all over the place. I'm finally taking some time to just write a post and stop being stressed out. Here's a band I've been in love with for SO long. I've only heard 6 songs by them but they are definitely adorable and I loooove them.


Jóvenes y Sexys are Cheky y Loocila from Venezuela. They make super cute songs and are now living in México. Whenever people ask me about them I immediately say: Un montón de canciones chulisímas! If I'm speaking in English I just say: CUUUUTE SO CUUUUTE! But I'm positive that chulísimas is a much better word to describe their songs.

Their little Bruno EP was the first thing I heard by them. Then I found the song they did for Las Canciones de Maru y Roman, the sountrack for Voy a explotar. Just a couple of weeks ago, I heard the song they did for the Rudo y Cursi soundtrack. It's a cover of "Amor Platonico" which I'm pretty sure is originally by Los Tucanes de Tijuana. Now, I'm not a huge fan of banda, but I grew up listening to it at familiy parties and even though I don't like it, I don't hate it. But when Jóvenes y Sexys sing this song, it's just so perfect that I could listen to it all day. They even make the word cochambrosa sound cute, even though I know exactly what it means.


Their EP is also super cute. Half of it is in Spanish, the other half is in English. My favorite song is "Suerte" which is just so precious and quiet and makes me both sad and happy. "El Reloj" is definitely the sweetest song on the EP. Almost saccharine but not quite. And then there are the two English songs, one of them is a cover. And even though I know the song "Divine Hammers" by the Breeders, I like the Jóvenes y Sexys version better. The other English song, "Gold Day" also has joiejoiejoie on the track, it's not my favorite but I do really like it.

Basically I am completely in love with these two. I'm always waiting for more songs from them. But until that happens I'm just super happy I found them.

Love, María

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Barbara!

I am going back to Bryn Mawr tomorrow, and even though it will be super-exciting because I will get to see all of my favorite people, it will also be sad because I will be separated once again from Barbara! I've mentioned her before, but just to refresh everyone's memory, Barbara is our adorable, almost-seventeen-year-old minivan. Barbara is a 1993 Toyota Previa that we bought right after my little sister was born, and we have had her ever since! I named her in high school, because I needed something to call her when I was encouraging her to make it up the hill on D Street right after you cross Vulcan. So, basically every childhood/adolescent memory that I have somehow involves this car.

For example! When we lived in Delaware, we would drive down to Grandpa Joe's beach house (looking back, I'm pretty sure it was actually a condo, but I always called it a house) in Florida every summer. It was a twenty-something hour drive, so we would leave super-early in the morning and spend a night in Georgia, and we always made sure to bring empty grocery bags, because Jocelyn would invariably throw up on the way down and then complain about being hungry. Also in Delaware, my mom and I got stuck in the snow and my mom called my dad to tell him to come get us, but not before she spent a decent amount of time ranting at him about how we should have gotten a car with four-wheel drive and that we were going to get rid of Barbara. But obviously we would never do that.


Before we moved to Delaware, we all went up to Sequoia National Park around Thanksgiving, and I was a little over 5 years old and Jocelyn was a baby, and a bear ripped off the back driver's side window while it was in the parking lot to get in the car and look for food. He even ejected the Nirvana CD we had in the CD player, and left giant paw-shaped dents on the roof of the sedan next to ours. I remember because the drive home was the first time I ever got to sit in the front seat. We had put a garbage bag over the back window, and my dad had to sit with Jocelyn because she was screaming from all the noise it was making (it's windy in the mountains), and my mom was mad because we had to leave early. Then, when they replaced the back window, the Toyota people put a brown-tinted window in instead of one of the grey-tinted ones that we were supposed to have.

Years later, after Jocelyn's sixth grade graduation, we all went out to breakfast with Jocelyn's friend's family (their two daughters are also Italian-Japanese mixes and their last name rhymes with ours, which is too cute), and we parked Barbara on this tree-lined part of Second Street in downtown Encinitas. One of the tree's giant branches fell off and through Barbara's back window, and when the Toyota people went to replace it, they matched it to the brown-tinted mistake window, which is adorable because it reminds me of getting to sit in the front on the way back from Sequoia!!


Barbara was also a really awesome car to have in high school. When I got my license, my parents got a Prius that I drove for a while, but then I made my mom trade cars with me. This is because I went to SDA (the hippie high school), and it was actually cooler to have an old crappy car that all of your friends could pile into than it was to have a brand new car. Basically, everyone's dream car was a VW Bus (those are SO CUTE and I still want one). It ended up being really useful for hour lunch on Wednesdays. And for dances! When we went to prom our junior year, my friends and I decided that taking a limo was tacky and a waste of money, and that it would be way more fun to take Barbara with her peace-sign and Hobbes (of Calvin and Hobbes) bumper stickers. We ended up taking her to our winter formal our senior year, too.

Basically, Barbara is the most perfect minivan ever and I will probably cry when she finally dies and we have to get rid of her. That will be a sad day, but I figured that I should write about her while she is still here for all of us to love and appreciate! And now, since we always park Barbara right in front of our house, she is forever immortalized in Google Maps' street view!


Love, Jillian

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Gregory and the Hawk

Every now and then I stumble upon random bands for no apparent reason, and sometimes I actually really like them and that always makes me happy. Gregory and the Hawk is one of those bands. I guess it's not actually a band, it's Meredith Godreau's solo project that occasionally features musician friends of hers. Her songs are all mellow and adorable, and she has this tiny sounding voice that kind of reminds me of a little girl, but in a good way.


Of all of her folksy, acoustic, adorable songs (yes, I am still on my girl-folk kick), "Boats & Birds" from The Boats & Birds EP is my favorite. The lyrics are just too adorable for me to resist! When I think about my favorite lyrics in a lot of songs (like Slow Club's "It Doesn't Have To Be Beautiful"), it is usually the part that involves the ocean that really makes me go, "AAAaaaaaw!!" Example:

If you'll be my boat/ I'll be your sea/ A depth of pure blue just to probe curiosity/ Ebbing and flowing and pushed by the breeze/ I live to make you free/ But you can set sail to the west if you want to/ and pass the horizon 'til I can't even see you/ far from here, where the beaches are wide/ Just leave me your wake to remember you by.



Even though I got her two albums, In Your Dreams and Moenie and Kitchi, that EP is still my favorite. "Avalanche! Oh, Avalanche!" is cute and kind of quirky, because she is actually singing about avalanches in a completely literal sense, and "In Fact (the Carousel Remix)" is adorable because it is a break-up song, but not in the I-am-so-sad-feel-bad-for-me sense (the title-lyric is, In fact, you even broke my good tape deck/ In fact, I don't want to be friends).

I know that this whole cutesy girl-folk thing isn't for everyone, but Gregory and the Hawk is definitely worth checking out. I liked it so much that I actually paid real money for the EP and everything!

Love, Jillian

Friday, August 21, 2009

One Cute Website

For some reason, I randomly remembered this website called Orisinal that is full of adorable games I used to play when I was fourteen or fifteen. One of my friends (I can't remember if it was Morgan or Charmaine) showed me Pocketful of Stars, and I was pretty much instantly addicted. The animation for each game is full of adorable little animals and prettiness, and the music they use in the background is always really good. I remember that I always used to dream that someday I would stumble upon the sheet music for the piece they use in Floats, so that I could play it on piano.


My favorite games were definitely Snowbowling and The Amazing Dare Dozen, but I also really liked Rainmaker and Hungry Spiders. There are a bunch of new games since I last looked at the website (like, several years ago), and A Dog For All Seasons and The Crossing are super-cute, too! Basically, Orisinal is the most adorable way to waste time that I can think of, and since school is starting soon, it will probably be really useful!

Love, Jillian

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Two Talking Cats

I thought that after my last post full of adorableness, I wouldn't be able to update for a while because how could anything else compete?! But, I was wrong! I found this video this morning of two adorable cats talking to each other and being cute! I've really wanted a cat lately even though I am somewhat allergic, and this makes me want one even more! The video has some ridiculously huge number of views, so most people have probably already seen it. It's totally worth watching again, though!



Plus, these cats are basically María and me (I am the stripe-y one) on Allegra's bed. For realsies. María and I have taken over Allegra's bed because it has so many fluffy pillows and she is probably hiding in the library, and I am bugging María because I want her to pet my hair, and she is saying that she doesn't want to because I just made her pet my hair and her arm is tired, and I am saying "Pleeeeeeaaaaase???" and rolling around and making adorable noises and trying to look adorable so that she will pet me, and then she finally gives in! I'm not even making this up, that exact situation happens all the time.

Love, Jillian

Monday, August 17, 2009

Three Adorable Movies

I know it's kind of a lot at once, but I figured that instead of making individual posts about each of the three adorable movies I've seen in the past three days, I should just make one big post about all of them! So, here goes!

On Saturday, I saw Adam. I made a post about this movie back in July when I first saw the preview, and it turned out to be every bit as adorable as I expected it to be! The movie takes place in New York City, and it is basically all about Beth (Rose Byrne) and Adam (Hugh Dancy), who has Asperger's syndrome, and their whole relationship and basically what it's like to be an adult with Asperger's syndrome and to be in a relationship with someone with Asperger's syndrome. It was especially interesting for me because I know all about autism spectrum disorders because of my mom's work, but it had never really occurred to me before that most people don't know about them or understand them at all, which is what they show in the movie. One guy who reviewed Adam went so far as to say that the character was "just quirky."

But anyway, the whole movie was basically unbearably adorable. This is because every time Adam learns a new social skill or handles change well or whatever, it makes you really happy for him! And any movie that starts off by referring to The Little Prince is automatically adorable. Plus, Rose Byrne and Hugh Dancy are super-cute in the first place, and even though the movie happens in fall, winter, and early spring in New York City, it is somehow always that perfect, crisp, fall weather that means you can wear corduroy skirts and cable-knit sweaters and tights and boots and scarves and maybe a pea coat, but it's not so cold that you have to wear giant puffy jackets and anything that will cover you up, regardless of whether or not it is adorable. And Adam always wears really adorable sweater-and-collared-shirt combinations and basically dresses exactly how I imagine my ideal man dressing.

And on top of all that, everyone has adorable apartments with adorable paint colors on the walls and there are two especially adorable parts in the movie involving raccoons! I know that this is horrible to say because I love Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt so much, but I really recommend seeing this movie over (500) Days of Summer. Both movies have boy-meets-girl adorableness and really amazing clothes and adorable actors, but Adam has substance beyond that, and it does a much better job of making you feel better at the end.

Sunday, I saw Julie & Julia. Anyone who loves cooking absolutely has to see this movie. Meryl Streep is perfect, and Julia Child and her husband are super-adorable together in the movie!! There is also a super-cute little French girl who is in the movie for like two seconds. And both Julie and Julia have a Le Creuset pot in the "flame" color in the movie, and now I think that that is the color I want for my future Le Creuset pot.

This is basically a movie about exactly how I want my life to be. If I lived in this movie, I would have an adorable husband to be adorable with who loves all of the food that I make with my Le Creuset pot in my adorable kitchen in my adorable apartment, and we would have adorable dinner parties and an adorable cat! And at least for a little while, there would be no babies to mess everything up and break things! Perfect.

Finally, today I saw Ponyo (real title: Gake no ue no Ponyo, or, Ponyo on the Cliff). Hayao Miyazaki, the writer and director, is probably one of my favorite people ever, and he always makes adorable movies. Ponyo is super-adorable, too! The plot of the movie is basically The Little Mermaid, including the possibility of her turning into sea foam from the original story (Disney left that part out of their version), except that Ponyo starts out as a goldfish and the story is about five-year-olds instead of adults. Plus, Ponyo loves ham just as much as I love bacon!

The town that Sosuke (the boy who finds Ponyo) and his mom live in is adorable, and the scenery in the ocean and on land is amazing. Apparently Miyazaki drew a lot of the ocean scenery himself (it's all hand-drawn animation), and this movie is worth seeing just to see that. And Sosuke and his mom live in an adorable little house on top of a cliff by the ocean! What was disappointing was that I'm pretty sure Disney messed with the end of the story to make it simpler and target it more towards kids (it's rated G, while his other films are rated PG or PG-13). Miyazaki's movies that I've seen are marketed as children's movies, but what I've always liked about them is that there's always some sort of theme that makes the movie interesting and relevant for adults, too.

Miyazaki's films are different from most children's movies because none of the characters are purely good or evil, and I think that that confuses most Americans who take their kids to the movies and expect something much more Disney-esque. I think that having characters who aren't just one-dimensional and who are more like real people makes Miyazaki's movies even cuter. Spirited Away is probably still my favorite Miyazaki film, but Ponyo is definitely cuter than the rest!

Love, Jillian

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Mad Men

The season premiere of the third season of Mad Men is tonight, and that reminded me of how perfect everything in that show is!


I mean, I suppose that other than all of the amazing clothing, it kind of sucked to be a woman in the early '60s. Luckily, I am completely capable of filtering all of that out when I watch the show, and I can instead focus all of my attention on mentally willing all of the clothes and hairdos and shoes and brooches and adorable houses in Mad Men to magically become part of my life. It also makes me want to smoke and drink and wear red lipstick, but then I remember that I look horrible in red lipstick and that I wouldn't be able to function if I drank all day and the cost of a cigarette addiction would severely limit my ability to satisfy my shopping addiction.


Basically, Mad Men is supposed to be all about advertising executives in the early 1960s, but really when I watch it, it is all about Betty (a housewife with the most perfect husband ever, other than the cheating and secret past thing) and Joan (one of the secretaries) and the wonderful things they do and wear. Plus, it makes me really happy that all of the women in the show are either housewives or secretaries because being a housewife/secretary is my DREAM! Who wouldn't want their life to be just like this?!!


Or this?!!


No one, that's who. That is why I will definitely be watching the premiere when it comes on AMC at 10 tonight, and yelling at my mom and my sister to be quiet so that I can plan out my future wardrobe/life.

Love, Jillian

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Cake Car Commercial


I've started tons of posts and just haven't gotten around to finishing them. Then, I read Jillian's post about the Volvo and it reminded me of 2 things. The first is how much I want a Volvo and the second is how cute this other car commercial is. Our friend Melissa thought of the same thing. Since she loves cute things just as much as we do, I'm pretty confident about how adorable this commercial is. It is pretty perfect. It has a cute car, Julie Andrews, and CAKE. So, until I can finish up some of my longer posts, I'll leave you with this.

Love, María

Friday, August 14, 2009

UNIQLO

During my sophomore year, my uncle who is a Japanese professor and therefore really into all things Japanese (including being really judgmental about Japanese restaurants and their authenticity) told me about UNIQLO! It is a super-adorable Japanese clothing store that opened in SoHo in New York City a few years ago. If you combine the color selections from American Apparel with a little of the preppy style of The Gap (as in, The Gap from the '90s before the quality of the clothing went downhill) and throw in a little Japanese kawaii-influence, you get UNIQLO. And, it's not ridiculously expensive! How could that possibly be bad?!


Of course, when Julia and I went on a roommate date to New York that same school year (during free NJ Transit week!), we had to go to UNIQLO. We also went on a carriage ride in Central Park, and then went to this super-tiny, super-delicious, super-romantic restaurant in the Village after shopping, and we had wine and Julia bought me dinner and it was the perfect date except that neither one of us is a man. We also went to Longwood Gardens in December when they have all the Christmas lights with our other roommate, Kate, and that was also the perfect date except that none of us is a man. Then, Julia went abroad FOR A WHOLE YEAR and I have been pining away ever since and waiting for her to come back so that we can have more roommate dates.

But! That is neither here nor there, and the point is that I wanted to buy like a million things at UNIQLO, but I wouldn't have been able to carry all of the bags. And since there is only that one store in the U.S., I haven't been back yet, and that makes me sad. If any of you ("you" meaning all five people who read this blog) are in New York City, you should go! They have men's clothing, too!

Love, Jillian

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Shoe Week!

As much as I love spending hours and hours staring at really expensive shoes that I can never afford on websites like J.Crew or Anthropologie, I also really like actually being able to buy adorable shoes and wear them. Surprising, I know. That is why I am really happy that stores like Ross exist and have cheap, adorable things that are even cheaper during sales like Shoe Week!

I know that it can be kind of annoying to have to search through really hideous clothing and piles of stripper-worthy heels to find adorable things, but I promise that the adorable things are there! For example, look at these super-cute shoes I found today for $13!


Plus, the boy whose job it is to stand by the door and greet everyone who comes in was super-adorable, and probably also still in high school. But whatever, the point is that not everything adorable has to be ridiculously over-priced! And now I have a new pair of adorable shoes (because I obviously really needed more shoes) that will make me feel happy whenever I wear them!

Love, Jillian

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

the Volvo XC60 Commercial

Okay, so I know that a car commercial isn't something that would immediately strike people as adorable, but this commercial is for Volvo, so it already has a few adorableness points in its favor. That is because Volvo is a Swedish company, and as far as I can tell, Sweden is an adorable and magical land that is full of forests and mountains and twee music and people who have adorable clothes and adorable apartments and adorable dinner parties every night (proof: see our Blogs We Like section).

On top of all that, this commercial has plenty of adorable things in it, like an adorable couple and adorable music with lots of adorable hand-claps and adorable lyrics. Check it out:



Um, I totally want to go to a magical forest in Sweden where some random man (admittedly, he is a little creepy) will take me to a giant building where my Volvo is being assembled by a somewhat racially diverse group of exceptionally attractive people, and when they are done, my adorable boyfriend and I will be magically lifted up into our Volvo and we will kiss adorably (in silhouette) and then the random, creepy man will wave his arms around and bring our Volvo back down to the ground amidst pretty sparks and hand-clap music, and then we will drive off into the forest while everyone stands and watches and is happy because of how adorable we are in our car.

And then a giant caption will appear across the bottom of my life that says "From Sweden with Love," because HOW PERFECT IS THAT?! I know absolutely nothing about this car beyond the fact that if I had a few thousand dollars lying around, I would totally buy it. That is how adorable this commercial is!

Love, Jillian

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Hello Schoolgirl!


Lately our lives haven't exactly been full of cuteness, but things are gonna get better! That's why I decided to watch Hello Schoolgirl yesterday.

I've mentioned before that we're obsessed with this really strange/cute Korean drama. After discovering it, our friend Melissa and I became obsessed with finding Korean movies that were just as cute. I've wanted to watch this particular movie for so long now that I started to get really nervous about actually watching it. But I figured that I needed to watch something even semi-cute, so I started watching it with my sister on Sunday.

I'm so glad I watched this movie. It is SO cute! The Korean girls in the movie are adorable. I want their hair and their glasses and their adorableness. Plus, Yoo Ji Tae's character was so awkward and cute. The whole movie is just so precious. There's even a cute dog in it! I've wanted to post about other adorable Korean movies I like but I'm glad I wrote this Hello Schoolgirl post first. It's just that cute.

I couldn't find a trailer with subtitles, but here's one without them. Even if you don't speak Korean and are confused like I was when I watched it, I bet you'll think it's pretty adorable. I'm so glad this movie is incredibly charming and was just what I needed to take my mind off things. I am definitely making my friend Melissa watch it ASAP. And if you read this blog, I suggest you watch it too!

Love, María

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Sunflowers

I really love sunflowers. You know, in case you couldn't tell from the new blog layout. They are adorable! Yellow flowers are the best, because yellow is such a happy color (I think I've written about this already), and sunflowers are so tall and big and they point at the sun! I think that's cool.


I don't have much else to say about them. Their adorableness is kind of self-explanatory and they just make me happy! I wish I could plant a bunch of them in my backyard, and then I would have sunflowers all the time!

Love, Jillian

Monday, August 3, 2009

My New Puppy

11 August 2009: The video doesn't work anymore! Sad! But it's because he got adopted, so now he has a family! Adorable!

So, moving in turned out to be nowhere near as adorable as it was supposed to be. In fact, it was basically the polar opposite of adorable because living in that house the way it is now would be like being a squatter and not an adorable housewife, so I didn't move in at all! Now, I am hanging out in Delaware (and I have a really intense desire to watch Wayne's World), and I will possibly be living in my grandparents' retirement community until the end of this week when my house/bedroom/life stops being a construction zone.

But! I will not let stupid contractors and people who can't communicate and the fact that I am currently homeless stop the cuteness! So, here is an adorable video of an adorable puppy at the humane society by my house (in California) that I am going to talk my mom into adopting! Ignore the music.

Abba Zabba from RCHS on Vimeo.

Isn't he cute?!! Obviously, we would change his name because he isn't even a year old yet (!!!) so he could totally get a new name and not be too confused. And he could be BFFs with Chelsea and they could hide under my bed together and I could buy them both a million squeaky toys when I go home for Christmas!!

Love, Jillian

P.S. The cat who lives at my house (in Pennsylvania) is adorable and talks a lot! Also, it turns out she is a girl, and not a boy like we had originally been told.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Inari Sushi, the Inari Chemise, and Moving!

I got back from my baby road-trip to Las Vegas a couple of days ago, and it was wonderful! I basically decided to give up on pants, and I will instead just wear skirts and dresses and shorts forever, because buying jeans is too much effort. I stayed at my favorite hotel, the Mandalay Bay, and even though I got stared at by a creepy, middle-aged man in the elevator, it was still a good trip because I got to eat tons of inari sushi!


Inari sushi is probably one of my favorite kinds of sushi, and we went to this Japanese buffet and basically half of it was full of sushi deliciousness. Inari sushi is a little tofu-pocket that is fried in soy sauce and other things, and then it is filled with sushi rice! It is kind of like dessert sushi, because it's sweet. So is tamago sushi, which I also love, because when it is made really well it doesn't have that weird, eggy texture and it doesn't really taste like egg at all, just sugary deliciousness!

There is also a chemise at Anthropologie that is called the Inari Chemise, and it is adorable! Obviously, it is on my wish list and I am basically checking it every day to see when it will go on sale.


This sort of thing makes me think that Anthropologie doesn't just name their clothing after random things that they think sound cool, and that they actually know how adorable the those things actually are! I would totally sit in my bed and eat inari sushi in my Inari Chemise, and if I have a rice cooker at my house I am going to make it all the time.

I am running out of things to say, since I am officially moving to Ardmore TOMORROW and my flight leaves tonight! It will be hot and humid and gross and beachless there, but my house has air conditioning and an adorable cat and I will keep myself occupied by painting over the horrific blue paint on my bedroom walls and playing foursquare with Maaaaggie!

Love, Jillian

Cub!

First off, I just realized this is our 100th post! That's crazy! I wasn't sure how many posts Jillian and I would be able to make before we completely forgot about this blog because we were too busy sleeping in Jillian's bed or watching Korean dramas. I'm joking. Well, sort of. Anyway, we love this blog and hopefully tons of other people do too. So we're just gonna keep going until we run out of cute things.


Cub were 3 girls from Vancouver who made cute cuddlecore songs. Their song "New York City" was covered by TMBG and suddenly everyone loved it. Cub's version is infinitely more adorable. The truth is that no matter how good you think TMBG are, no one can sing the cute lyrics the way Lisa Marr did.

Their line-up changed numerous times. At some point, even Neko Case was involved as their drummer. This is before she went on to make her own girl group and way before the New Pornographers and the heart-wrenching alt-country solo stuff. Their first album Betti-Cola, has always been my favorite for obvious reasons: it's the poppy-est. Their stuff got more fuzzed out and I think it would've gotten much noisier if they hadn't broken up.

These girls were known for their live shows, in which they'd toss candy to the audience! Adorable. Eventually they did break up though, and two of the girls moved to California, and began making some pop punk with Pepper Berry as the third member of their new band Buck.




But before that all happened they created all sorts of cute songs. One of my favorites is definitely "A Picnic" because, well, who doesn't love picnics? I have no idea. In fact, I plan on making a post about picnics and picnic-related things very soon. Plus, there are all sorts of cute lyrics in it. I know a lot of people who say their favorite song is "Go Fish" or "My Chinchilla" which is are really silly songs which always gets stuck in my head. I also love a bunch of songs from Mauler and Box of Hair and Come Out Come Out, like "Ticket to Spain", "One Last Kiss", and "Pillow Queen" There are really too many songs for me to list all my favorites, plus, I really love all their songs so it's too hard to choose.

These girls also loved covers. I really like their cover of Beat Happening's "Cast A Shadow" and The Go-Go's "Vacation" and of course Jillian mentioned how cute their cover of "Surfer Girl" is. There's also a Yoko Ono cover they did, which makes me think of our friend Melissa every time it comes on.

Basically, I love Cub. They are one of my favorite bands ever. I could listen to them all day, and a lot of the time I really do. And I figure that if they can make an adorable band, so can I. Now we just need to actually do it, and everyone else has to listen to Cub.

Love, María