little bit of pretty.

ames gave me these baby bud vases for my birthday.  i had a giant vase of flowers that were starting to crinkle up a bit. so i pulled out the lookers and made em look real pretty. 

don'tcha think?

sunday funday

this weekend, my boyfriend and his friends cooked a giant mexican dinner.  they cooked for hours and hours and it was the most delicious meal ever. i was in awe of them.  since they're all in culinary school and i'm a really terrible cook, i was in charge of drinks.  of course i decided to go the margarita route.  but i wanted a twist on the normal version so last week a few girlfriends and i did some field research and narrowed it down.  i decided to make two different margaritas: jalapeno and frozen strawberry.  the jalapeno margarita came out so great.  i meant to take photos of everything and everyone but my camera lost its mind.  

here's the recipe. 

1 jalapeno
handful of celery leaves
teaspoon of sugar
tonnns of limes!
tequila (i used cabo wabo)
triple sec

add a few slices of jalapeno (i used a lot since i like em spicy), the celery leaves, sugar and the juice of 6 limes to the blender.  blend it!

in a pitcher, add 16 ounces of tequila, 8 ounces of triple sec and jalapeno mixture with lots of ice.  so good. do it.

vhs: a collector's item?

this morning, my friend's radio show had a guest on talking about an article he had writtten for the phoenix called: "vhs is the new vinyl."  making snap judgements, as i sometimes do, i thought oh hell no.  hearing the crackly goodness of a record is far different than rewinding, fast forwarding, and watching a fuzzy tape flicker and blip.  i wanna see ryan gosling kiss rachel mcadams in HD, duh.

but i listened because i was intrigued.  and then i read the article because i was more intrigued.  ok so apparently 30 years ago when mom/pop, independent video stores started popping up, the easiest tapes to get were cheesy horror movies and sleazy t&a type movies... (something about liscensing.) because these movies were never hits, or even that great, they've never been formatted to dvd and probably never will be.   there is a whole culture of people buying and selling these VHS tapes on ebay for upwards of $75.  there's people camped out at horror conventions and comic con with bins of tapes to sell and plenty of people ready to dig through.

i get it because i am nostalgic and love things from my past.  just last night i was talking about henry warnimont.  the author said it very best "It's like the hominess of a grilled-cheese sandwich that your mom made in 1985, and you've kept in the freezer this whole time. Along with your mom's head."

anyways, i loved the article and want to properly credit the author: michael neel.  you can read it here.

(also: henry warnimont.)

all living things eat...

the incredibly inappropriate yet hilarious bartender at my work just threw something awesome onto my desk.  when i asked if i could keep it, he said "really? uh, yeah."  it was everybody poops by taro gomi.  i lovelovelove taro gomi. his illustrations are simple, big, full of color and fit for kids and adults.  this book is especially fitting for me since, as liz lemon says, i have a fear of "an away toilet situation." but, according to gomi, everybody poops. huh.  gomi also has some great scribble books i've been eyeing. have a look.

yeah, it's going right where you think.  butts. poopin' ones. i spared you.

fantasy box office update

fantasy box office draft update:

these are the stats so far, although it's hardly exciting since some people don't have a movie that's had an opening yet.  i feel good about it and the weekly updates make monday mornings way more awesome. for me, this is based only on the great nic cage's season of the witch. i have the rite coming out this weekend, so i'm excited to see the changes.  i'm just glad i don't have sanctum. yipes. have you seen the previews?

fletcher: $63,441,000.00
maki: 63,441,000.00
trish: 34,829,000.00
kelly: 33,364,000.00
tara: 22,078,000.00
cyrrene: 22,078,000.00
ed: 20,300,000.00
padraic: 20,300,000.00
bonner: --

happy anniversary me!

today is the 1 year anniversary of weheartrobots! on january 24, 2010 jenn and i sat in a panera bread in the financial district, doodling on napkins and coming up with the dumbest/larpiest/cheesiest blog names for hoooursss.  150 blog posts later, here i am.

thanks if you're reading. i love ya.

anyways. today just some real pretty photos of things i'm thinkin about:

listening to...

wanting most...

keeping me warm today (it's -1!):

keeping me up way too late giving me tummy aches of laughter:

friday, saturday, sunday for hours...

thinking always (also, looking to buy an old typewriter. ebay?)...

looking forward to:

 and...

 and...

have a very special 1.24.11. i plan on it.

xo,

tara

space.

the longer you're alive, the more places you visit, right?  makes sense.  it also means you start developing your own personal aesthetic taste.  i was thinking about the places i've been recently (and not so recently) that have left some sort of impression on me.  they all have the same look, which is something i've heard called 'contemporary industrial.' below i've posted photos only of places i have been, [because it's hard to get a feel for a place unless you visit it] that have inspired me.  i would like my home to be much softer than the looks below, but if i were to open ny own... something... i would go this route.

1. mass MoCA; berkshires, ma: i visited the moca in november and was honestly breathless.  it's an old mill building with distressed bricks, great big windows and ceilings. it looked really raw. i fell in love.

2. intelligentsia; venice beach, ca: it's a coffee shop.  they are in california and chicago. autumn de wilde is doing a book signing here for her death cab photo book this weekend. i want to go.

3. elsa bar; east village, ny: it's especially great in person. oh, and they somehow serve beer from that sewing machine.

4. drink; boston, ma.

5. ica; boston, ma: specifically the mediatheque room. the architects designed this room so that while inside, the only view from the glass wall is water.  you can literally see nothing else but a wall of water that's ever changing.  in the second photo, the mediatheque room is that small box that pokes out of the belly of the building. 

pantone color of the year: bleck.

pantone. they set the stage each year for what will be the dominant colors in design and fashion.  at the start of each year, pantone names a "color of the year" and you can be sure you will see it everywhere from runways, to home shows, to wall colors to wedding parties.  the 2010 color was turquoise; this year, pantone just announced the color of 2011 is honeysuckle (18-2120). i don't like pink, unless it's neon, so i'm not into honeysuckle. (read more about their choice here.)

i like how pantone presents their product, but i think they can come off as super pretentious.  their pantone branded products have veered into the "extremely excessive" range.  take a look below. sure, i would love to own a set of pantone mugs when i have my very own home but do i need to ride around on a pantone yellow bike?  nah, i'm good.

 

a perfect saturday.

remember that scene in old school with will ferrell describing the saturday he's going to have with his wife? bed bath and beyond type stuff? well i have my own version of a "nice little saturday."  it's not often i get to do it - plans, obligations, wah wah wah but this saturday, nothing is getting in my way.  here's how it goes:

wake up bright and early, without a hangover.
lace up my sneaks and head to the gym for a run.
sweat a lot.
stop at caffe vittoria for the best cappuccino of anywhere.
curl up on my couch for wait, wait don't tell me on npr. 
orange juice, scrambled eggs with salsa.
giggle at mo rocca.  who is the ultimate nerd dreamboat. 

if you've never listened to wait, wait don't tell me, i promise you will love it.  it's an "oddly informative news quiz" that takes place every saturday at 10am.  they get crazy silly guests like: dick van dyke, bono, elvis costello, george takei, wayne newton.  hosted by peter sagal with score kept and judging by carl kasell accompanied by a mixed goup of panelists - you are guaranteed to be entertained and even possibly informed.  give it a shot.  and stick around for car talk afterwards.  i always do.