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

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

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

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

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

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

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