Tulips and the Bungalow Dress

My favorite kinds of flowers are yellow flowers because yellow is such a happy, cute color, and I think that my absolute favorite kind of yellow flower is the tulip. Yellow tulips look like little cups of sunshine and adorableness! What could be better?! Of course, when I think of yellow tulips, I think of how I plan on planting them all around the adorable little house that I will someday have, and they will be so pretty and nice to look at when I have people over for tea parties in my garden. Obviously, I'll need something to wear to my tea parties in my tulip-filled garden, and this is what I would wear:


This is the Bungalow Dress from Anthropologie, and when I found it online yesterday, all I could think was how wonderfully it would go with a garden full of yellow tulips and tea and little cucumber sandwiches. Unfortunately, the Bungalow Dress is a two-paycheck dress, and I am in the middle of saving up for a different two-paycheck dress that I am going to wear to the International Ball at the Naval Academy in April. But hopefully the Bungalow Dress will still be around (or maybe even on sale?!) after my next two paychecks, so that I can be that much closer to fullfilling my dreams of yellow tulips and pretty dresses and tea parties.

Love, Jillian

Strawberry Fair and Raspberry Cookies

I've been in love with Strawberry Fair's music for quite awhile now.  Last year she released her Strawberry Fair Sings "I Can't Do Anything" EP and I was excited to have even more music by her. Strawberry Fair is actually the stage name of Swedish (surprise, surprise!) pop darling Jenny Franzén. Her music reminds everyone of 1960s girl groups, and that's really no surprise. But for me, her cuteness lies not just in her almost whiney voice and heartachey lyrics but in those moments when her music is jangly&upbeat and she sounds just shy enough that it can come across as adorably coy. The fact that there is a pretty good amount of clapping in her songs doesn't hurt either. "Football Star" makes me want to giggle and "Why Won't He Answer" makes me want to dance. Anyway, while listening to her EP this week and looking through Marta Stewart articles I came across these:

They're raspberry cream sandwich cookies and I think it was fate that I found them while considering a blogpost about Strawberry Fair. They are pink and cute and most likely delicious. I bet they are just the kind of thing you bring to a picnic besides a blanket and Strawberry Fair songs. Yeah, they're just right. And that's also how I feel about Strawberry Fair's music, it's always just right.

Love, María

Nesting Baby-Bluebird Cupcakes

Martha Stewart is basically our favorite person ever. I've said it before, and I'll probably say it a million more times. Just look at how adorable these cupcakes are!!! I mean, they have the word "baby" in the name, so they must be adorable. María and I think that these are the perfect Easter cupcakes, and we totally want to make them this year and put them in little Easter baskets and just sit and look at how cute they are. And the most awesome thing about this recipe is that you could make a bunch of little baby bird cupcakes in DIFFERENT COLORS like pink and lavender and pretty much whichever color you want!!! Imagine how wonderful life would be if you had a kitchen full of different-colored baby-bird cupcakes instead of a dorm room full of reading and essays and presentations that need to be done! Pretty wonderful.

Love, Jillian

Knithouse!

This is our 24th post and so I figured that since 24 is my favorite number (it's a pretty cute number, right?) I'd make it about one of my favorite things. 2/3 years ago my friend Christopher built a house from wood and yarn. Knithouse was quickly added onto my list of things I love and ever since then I've wanted one for myself. Wouldn't it be nice to have one of these in your backyard? I think so.


Of course knithouse was much more than just a cute house. In fact, I remember reading Christopher's proposal and hearing him talk all about it. If you want to read all about it I'm sure you can google "Would we slip away?" and you'll find something about Christopher and knithouse. But as much as I know about it, I love knithouse mostly because I want a colorful little house that's made from yarn. Maybe Jillian and I can get him to build us a huge one with our bakery/flower shop inside!


The other night I even had a dream about knithouse. That's how much I love it! In the dream I had finally convinced my friend to build me one and it was full of pillows and nice things. Somehow, I even lived in it! This was all great until I realized knithouse had a door and it was locked and I couldn't get my keys back from someone. Luckily, if I ever do live in an adorable house I'll make Jillian&Chris both keep an extra set of keys.


Sadly, knithouse is now gone and it's pieces are locked away somewhere. I ask Chris to build me one all the time, but apparently it took a lot of work. Once we even decided that it could be at my wedding and everyone would sort of have to wear sweaters. Okay, maybe that's too much and he shouldn't be an event planner. But one day I hope I can convince Christopher to build one for my children/ME. Until that day, I'll just stare at these pictures and come up with ways of convincing him to finally build me my own knithouse.

Love, María

Yé-yé Girls

When I was little I wanted to grow up to be something that I associated with being adorable. Actually, I probably still feel that way. I really can't help it. I don't remember when I first heard the song "La chica yé yé" (buscate una chica, una chica yé-yé/que tenga mucho ritmo y que cante en inglés/con el pelo alborotado y las medias de color...) but I do know that instead of making me think that being a yé-yé girl sounded silly/stupid, it made me want to be one more than anything else. I had a list of things I might want to be. Maybe a housewife, a secretary, or even a baker. At the end of the day though a yé-yé girl just sounded so perfect. I mean they basically started off as a bunch of cute french girls who were chosen as "le chouchou de la semaine" on Salut les copains. I like to think that wearing cute 1960s outfits, singing songs, dancing and being coy sounds like a good career choice.


Even now, I'd probably rather be a yé yé girl than be at college. I'm sure tons of people are going to think that's silly, well too bad. Mostly, I think I wanted/want to be Sylvie Vartan or Chantal Goya. Françoise Hardy is way too pretty, and France Gall's hair sometimes upset me. Except that France Gall sings one of my favorite songs "Sacré Charlemagne" and Françoise Hardy obviously has the hair I've always wanted. And Clothilde sang "Saperlipopette" and Rosalia sang "La chica yé-yé" It's too hard to choose just one! I think I just liked that Chantal Goya seemed sassy and Sylvie Vartan made me wish I could be a blonde. I don't know exactly how much Jillian loves yé-yé girls but I'm going to say it's probably tons. This is because I know how cute she thinks french sounds and because we have basically the same taste in almost everything.

But since neither of us is ever going to get to be one, all we can do is adore them. I can listen to them in the car with Jillian and pretend that "Tous Les Garçons et Les Filles" isn't kind of depressing and listen to "Baby Pop" until my head almost hurts.

Love, María

Baked Alaskas

María and I really like the song "Indian Summer" by Beat Happening, and there's a part that goes French toast with molasses/ croquet and baked Alaskas.  Every time we hear it, we talk about baked Alaskas and how intriguing they are.  Basically, a baked Alaska is ice cream surrounded by layers of cake, completely covered in meringue.  The idea is that the meringue acts as an insulator, so when you put it in the oven, the ice cream doesn't melt all over and make a mess.  The thing is, you have to put it in the oven for the exactly right amount of time so that the meringue gets hard, but the ice cream doesn't melt.

We still haven't decided if baked Alaskas are adorable or not, but we are incredibly curious.  Obviously, cake, ice cream, and meringue are all things that are delicious and adorable on their own, but I'm afraid that they might not work together.  Or, they will combine adorable-forces and create the most insanely perfect dessert of all time.  Mostly, I'm just afraid that it sounds like something that will make me sick if I eat more than two bites.  The only way to find out, of course, is for us to make one, so we're going to see if we can successfully make a baked Alaska sometime soon.

Also, in my search for information about and pictures of baked Alaskas, I found out that Ben & Jerry's has a flavor called Baked Alaska that, amongst other things, has WHITE CHOCOLATE POLAR BEARS in it!!!!  I love polar bears, and when they're tiny and made of white chocolate, they're probably even better!

Love, Jillian

Siestas y fiestas con Nosoträsh

Originally I thought I'd make a post about Spanish indie pop. After talking to my friend Christopher though, I realized that although I don't ALWAYS like Spanish indie pop, I do ALWAYS like Nosoträsh. 

Christopher constantly points out that there is perhaps nothing more saccharine than Spanish indie pop. This is probably true. Sometimes it makes me feel like I am swallowing cups full of maple syrup and listening to baby animals singing. BUT other times I really can't help how much I love it.

I first discovered Nosoträsh when I'd been listening to La Buena Vida for days and wanted to listen to something that was cuter but that didn't make my head hurt. And so I found Nosoträsh. Their lyrics are just right. They are sound adorable and are actually sort of heartbreaking like with most indie pop. In "Arte" they sing about naps and parties and dreaming about someone being in love with you. How sad! How cute! The title "Tres tristes tigres" reminds me of a tongue twister I learned when I was little. Adorable!

Also, Jillian and I love naps and Nosoträsh is the perfect music for naps in the middle of the day. Plus, I imagine that if I were to sing in Spanish, I'd sound like Nosoträsh and not like Cola Jet Set. Well, I hope so anyway.

Love, María

Crocodile! Hippopotame!

María and I absolutely love babies.  It's possible that we love babies more than anything else in the world.  And the best kind of babies are the babies that speak languages other than English.  For example:

I know everyone ever has seen that video, but OH MY GOODNESS!!!  It just makes me think of all the adorable little babies I've seen speaking languages other than English in little baby voices, and it's almost too adorable for me to handle!  All of the babies in Italy sound incredibly sassy, and there is a baby that sometimes comes to our campus center that speaks Japanese in an adorable little baby voice and climbs up on the coffee tables.  And, once, I was waiting for my chili verde burrito at Raul's and there was a BILINGUAL baby in line with his parents and he really wanted a quarter for the bubble gum machine and kept switching between Spanish and English depending on which parent he was arguing with and I almost died from the cuteness.

Also, I've decided that since I already know some Spanish and a lot of Italian and I can kind of read French, it should totally not be a problem for me to learn French by watching this video over and over and over.  I'll only know how to talk about crocodiles and hippos and magic powers, but really why would you want to talk about anything else?!!?

Love, Jillian

Girl Scout Cookies with The Smittens

I really don't like most cookies. I love baking cookies but I don't really LOVE eating cookies. Except certain kinds. Girl Scout cookies are one of those. They come in colorful little boxes and Lemonades look like cute lemon slices and they have yellow icing. I was never a Girl Scout but my sister was and so when I eat them I think of her and her cute little vest. So, when Jillian and I were walking out of the campus center yesterday and we saw little girls selling Girl Scout cookies we had to buy some. 

Later, I had to finally give in to the pile of work that was sitting next to me, and I was not happy. But listening to The Smittens is a good way to make me pretend that I don't have to do my work for 20 minutes. I love The Smittens. I love that they are from Vermont because in my mind I've made Vermont into a pretty cute state. Jillian and I even talked about how nice it is that Vermont and New Hampshire fit into each other just right. I like "Good Migrations" because if you know me, you know the story about how I was confused about why we didn't celebrate Hanukkah. I like "Sapphire" because it was probably the first song I heard by them and I fell in love! I also like how sort of sad "Magpies and Eccles Cakes" is and the line about milk and sugar in tea. And I like that their songs make me think of really soft dresses and warm clothes. See? I could go on and on. I've already said too much! But honestly, they are adorable. Currently, I can listen to "Momus, Where Are You?" over and over for way longer than anything else. And I mean I think The Smittens go perfectly with a Girl Scout cookie. Any cookie, actually. 

Love, María

Baby Turtles!

A little while ago, my friend Alex sent me this adorable video of a tiny little turtle trying to eat a tomato. It is totally worth watching all four minutes and seven seconds.

Of course, I immediately sent a message with the video in it to María, and her response was "THAT IS ADORABLE. Alex is okay in my book now. Before I wasn't so sure." And what makes this video even more adorable is that it is a TINY turtle eating a TINY tomato, because we all know that everything is infinitely more adorable when it's miniature. This probably explains why I love cherry tomatoes so much in the first place, and when you combine them with little baby turtles, I can hardly keep myself from giggling uncontrollably and running out to buy my very own baby turtle and pounds and pounds of cherry tomatoes.

Love, Jillian

Minimarket

I love Sweden. In fact, I just recently had a conversation with our friend Melissa about how so many things that are cute just come from Sweden. One day, I'll make a post all about Sweden but for now let's just talk about Minimarket. Sweden + Clothes usually = adorableness. That is exactly what Minimarket is all about. Unfortunately María + Sweden + Clothes usually = not happening.  So until I win the lottery all I can do is stare and drool and dream about macaron brunches with Melissa and Jillian where we all wear Minimarket outfits.

Love, María

69 Love Songs

Yesterday was Valentine's day, and while I was working at the cafe, I decided that it would be adorable to play the entirety of the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs.  It's a three-part concept album that they released in 1999, and it is full of adorable, wonderful songs.  Some of my personal favorites are "Absolutely Cuckoo," "The Book of Love," and "Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin," but our favorite by far is "Washington, D.C."  The opening lyrics are: Washington, D.C./ it's paradise to me/ it's not because it is the grand old seat/ of precious freedom and democracy, no, no, no/ it's not the greenery turning gold in fall, the scenery circling the Mall/ it's just that's where my baby lives, that's all.  HOW ADORABLE IS THAT?!??!!  María and I have decided that we want boyfriends who live in Washington, D.C. just so that we can listen to that song over and over and over again.  It's perfect!

Love, Jillian

Marzipan

I don't think I like the way marzipan tastes, but when it's shaped like fruits I can't help but appreciate how nice it looks. The other day someone offered Jillian and me marzipan and of course I said yes when I noticed there were tiny pears and apples. And although I didn't want to eat it I still had to document the whole thing somehow. So I of course made Jillian take pictures of herself holding the pear.

Getting those pictures was much harder than you would think. First, Jillian couldn't stop laughing, then she looked angry, and then she made strange faces. Luckily, we finally got some good ones. After 500 tries. In the end it was worth it because now I can write this post about marzipan fruits. 

Love, María

Eighties Dresses

I know that the eighties are kind of a touchy subject, because there are definitely plenty of not-adorable things that came out of the eighties and won't go away.  But good things happened in the eighties, too.  María and I were born, and later went on to create this blog to bring adorableness to the world.  And lots and lots of polka dot dresses were made and are now living in thrift stores and vintage clothing stores, waiting for me to find them.  I found this one the other day in Philly and I am going to wear it tonight!  You can't really see the little black polka dots all over it, but they're there.

It kind of reminds me of my old prom dress, because both dresses come from the eighties, both dresses have polka dots, and both dresses are fluffy and adorable, but my prom dress was even more amazing because it only cost me $17 and turned out really nicely once I had the giant poufy sleeves with huge white bows on them taken off.

This picture makes me miss Barbara, my adorable mini van who lives in California, but that's another post.

Love, Jillian

Macarons!

We love all sorts of cute sweet things that taste like adorable things should. That is exactly why I LOVE MACARONS! They are delicious, they look like things I might want to wear, and they come in all sorts of colors. Basically, they're perfect. 

This post is making me really hungry, it's because they just look like tiny dream desserts! Speaking of dreams, I recently had a dream that our friend Allegra (who has left us for Paris!) sent me THOUSANDS of macarons. So, I called Jillian and Melissa and they helped me eat ALL OF THEM. We felt really sick afterwards, but just like if it had been real life Jillian quickly said "It was totally worth it." If only it had been real, then my life would be pretty perfect.

Love, María

Westies

I love puppies, everyone loves puppies. But everyone knows that the kinds of puppies I love most are Westies. 

They are tiny and fluffy and tiiiiny and just so cute!

Jillian just wrote about how everyone should love how squiggly and cute states are and I agree. They really are! And although I love Illinois and I think it is an adorable state, I also love the state I was born in. San Luis Potosi: 

It looks like a dog! It's true! Everyone thinks so. Whenever I think of states I think of how cute San Luis Potosi is. I also think of how my mother taught me to remember it by telling me it looked like a puppy. Obviously this means that I am meant to love Westies and so I need to have one. It's fate.

Love, María

Swirly Cupcakes

As I've mentioned before, María and I are pretty much in love with Martha Stewart.  Her website is my home page right now, and you can make fun of me for it all you want but I am not ashamed.  As soon as I have access to an oven again, I want to try her recipe for Swirly Cupcakes, because they just look like little mountains of happiness with rainbow sprinkles on top!

Aren't they adorable?!  I imagine making them inside of a little yellow kitchen in a little pink house with a cute garden and white Christmas lights everywhere while my Calico kitten and Chow Chow puppy play on the floor.  Here's the recipe.

Love, Jillian

States

Maps are always full of adorable little shapes: states!  They are super-cute and so much fun to look at.  Of course, the state that you are from always looks cuter than all the others, which is probably why María loves Illinois and I love California.

I guess it probably depends on whether or not you actually like where you're from, but I just feel like all of the little squiggly shapes that states make are so adorable and fun!

Love, Jillian

Chow Chows

All puppies are adorable, but we are especially obsessed with one particular breed: the Chow Chow.  Whenever we are feeling sad, we think about fluffy things, which automatically makes us think of Chow Chows, and we are instantaneously filled with a warm and fuzzy feeling of giggly happiness.

How can you not love Chow Chows?!!!  Martha Stewart loves Chow Chows, too, and we love her.  Their name literally means "puffy lion-dog."  If that isn't perfect and adorable, we don't know what is.

Love, Jillian & María

My Life with The Brunettes

Because I have absolutely no intention of ever finishing/starting my work I have instead been listening to The Brunettes. They are an ADORABLE band from New Zealand and they make me want to eat raspberry sorbet and have picnics. Okay, maybe the also has something to do with the really nice weather lately. The real truth about me listening to The Brunettes is that mostly I just listen to 3 or 4 songs on repeat. But wouldn't you want to listen to a song titled "Summer Love" that talks about James Dean over and over? Or a song that starts Cupid, come here/quickly point your arrow at that one/her brunette hair is long/and she is so much fun/which means she is my #1 ???? Don't lie to yourself! I already want to listen to the song again!

Other than listening to songs over and over I've been daydreaming about living in a tiny pink house. Okay, so I do that every day, so what? I also bought really amazing pens the other day and made cards for people who are far far away (Paris, Chicago, Portland, Mexico) and then I tried to post about them but I am simply not prepared and so I leave you with this: 

Love, María

Ladybugs

As a general rule, bugs are gross and disgusting and the opposite of cute unless they are cartoon bugs.  But ladybugs are adorable, even in real life.  María and I had to go to Haverford this afternoon for a lecture called "Seeing Through the Dark Wood: A History of Dante Illustrations," where we got to see all sorts of amazing paintings that have been used to illustrate the Divine Comedy.  The best part, though, was that while we were waiting at the bus stop and complaining about having to go to Haverford for this lecture, we looked down at the bench next to us and found this adorable little ladybug!

Ladybugs always remind me of when my family used to live in Delaware in our adorable house that had woods and deer in the backyard and a library that my grandpa built, and every winter the ladybugs would all come and live in my bedroom.  They are so cute, and they come in so many different colors, and they basically look like little pieces of candy with legs.  Who doesn't love ladybugs?!

Love, Jillian

Wants and Needs

Every time I open Anthropologie I have to remind myself that I am not a rich housewife. Since I am still a poor college student, I can't wear pretty dresses and bake cupcakes and fold laundry all day. And so, while I impatiently wait for my future self, I have to remember not to spend all my money on things that have bows or look like they are covered in sprinkles. Unfortunately, this doesn't always work. For example, a couple of months ago I wanted this dress:

And after looking at it every single day for about a month, Anthropologie made me buy it. I mean, basically. Right now, I'm pretty sure I owe Bryn Mawr College thousands of dollars plus I haven't even bought all my books (shocking!) and yet, all I can do is think of how much I really want to buy an apron. Yes, you read that right, AN APRON. 

Isn't it adorable? But I don't NEED it. I NEED to go to college, buy my books, pay interest on loans, blahblahblah. Except that because of college I currently cough every 10 seconds and have spent all my money on tissues. So right now, I'm gonna say I sort of do need this. I guess what I actually need first is a kitchen so that Jillian and I can work towards our life goals by baking. Close enough, right?

Love, María

New Shoes

About a week-and-a-half ago, I did some online shopping (dangerous) and one of the things I bought is this adorable pair of shoes from Urban Outfitters.  I've worn them almost every day since they came in the mail this week, and I am in love.  I love the little baby peacock feathers on the toe of each shoe, the blue satin, and the fact that the edges of the shoe aren't incredibly stiff like their shoes usually are.  Also, looking at them in my room makes me feel better about whatever mystery illness it is that María and I have.

Once the snow starts to melt, I'll probably have to put them away for a while so that I don't ruin them in a giant puddle, but for now their adorableness is totally worth my feet being cold between classes.

Love, Jillian

A Few of Our Favorite Things

Our list of adorable things that we want/love includes things like ribbons and tiny Swedish houses and pink hat boxes. But one of the most important things on that list is KITTENS! They are just all sorts of adorable and we love that. Since Jillian and I have been sick all week we've needed to fill our lives with things that will make us feel better like tea, cough drops, naps, twee, and videos of kittens. Which is why we realized that the perfect cure for everything is listening to The LK's "Private Life of a Cat" on repeat and watching this: 



It's basically everything we love all bundled up with a bow on top.

Love, María

Cosmo

Recently, I have been a little bit obsessed with cupcakes.  In the past few days, I've saved twenty-two pictures of cupcakes and their recipes on my computer.  My desktop background is a picture of a carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting.  I've been entertaining the idea of using my key to get into the cafe where I work in the middle of the night, and using the ovens there to bake cupcakes all night.

María and I found this one the other day, and it has been driving me absolutely insane that I can't get the recipe.

Cosmo

It's described as "a Vodka-soaked cranberry cupcake with lime-infused buttercream," and it comes from a gourmet cupcake bakery called Happy Cakes in Denver, CO.  Road trip, anyone?

Love, Jillian

Last Saturday

Last Saturday night, María and I were incredibly bored (surprise!), and she ended up making shapes on my floor with a necklace that I found on our hall the night before.  I took pictures of each shape on my phone, and here they are!

Heart

Cat

Rabbit

Whale

Turtle

Telephone

Deer

Dog

Glasses

Cupcake

Love, Jillian