Mix Tape Fridays Vol. 16

This week's jams are pretty random but so is my taste in music. Please do enjoy!!!

Starting with my Die Antwoord, who are South Afrikan, crazy creepy and awesome!

"Baby's on Fire" Die Antwoord

She's too cute for words. This song is perfect for Liv's 3rd year video.


"White Lights" Oh Land


This is an oldie but goodie, I'm not a huge fan of this video but the song is a classic!


"So Fresh & So Clean" OutKast

I can't stop playing this song. JE'TAIME!!!


"Comment tu Dire Adieu" Françoise Hardy

I know this is totally random but I love me some S&G. I also love The Graduate which I have seen several times but only understood it as an adult. Cu-ca-choo!


"Mrs. Robinson" Simon & Garfunkel

Now the mandatory Björk song of the week. This song always getting me going. It's so amazing and fun to dance around to. How adorable is Pedo Bear!


"Human Behavior" Björk

Besides LDR being overrated, I still enjoy this song. I always think of this skit of Kristen Wiig doing a spot on impression *boy, SNL is suffering without her*


"Video Games" Lana Del Rey

You're So Nice and You're so Smart. I dedicate this song to Antz.


"So Nice So Smart" Kimya Dawson

Pretty Photos from National Geographic. This song is from one of my all-time top ten movies, High Fidelity.


"Dry the Rain" The Beta Band

This song is so 80's and soo good. It's definitely my soundtrack for this weekend.


"A Real Hero" College featuring Electric Youth

I'm adding this as a bonus video. This dude is beyond awesome and I can't get this song out of my head, really it's too catchy!


"Gangnam Style" PSY

That is all, my friends. Aside from an event at Liv's school and then dinner with friends tonight, we have ABSOLUTELY nothing planned this weekend. I'm so excited to laze around the house and possibly clean out my closet, and pull out my warmer clothes *my leggings, tights and jackets*

Happy Friday!!

The First Day of Fall

Technically it was yesterday and we even had cooler weather. *finally under 100°*  Last week Liv went to her first ballet lesson. The class is for 3 years and up but Liv's friend Tigerlilly goes and she's 3 days younger than Liv. I must have told Liv 50 times to listen to the teacher and follow directions. She kept telling me "Yeah, okay Mommy."

She did well for about 5 minutes. Then she ran around in circles for a majority of the time.


I was dying of cuteness!

She was distracting the other little girls so much, the teacher held her while they did their positions. I am still undecided if I'll take her to tomorrow's class. We'll see how she feels after school. Aimee and I are test driving her dream car. She hopes to get it in December.

Bedlam!

Thank Goodness our bed is all built because I was running out of bed-puns. It 'twurn't easy I'll say that. Antz started building the bed at 9, I fell asleep pretty late since I was laying on the couch. Next thing I know he is telling me he is missing a piece and it's almost 3am! Yikes! Those 4 drawers took forever to build *note to Ikea, some pre-assembly would be great* So this morning I had to go to Ikea to pick up the missing piece and voila!

Me and my lovely testing it out!!! Freaking SWEET!

We have to run and take a flying leap to get up there

Our bed was ready to go. Antz even moved the furniture around so we can access all four drawers. No more window side for us!!

I need to buy a bed skirt now, our old bed frame hid our box spring

Isn't it awesome how lumpy our featherbed is? Wheeeee!

Sexy drawer action

We plan on relocating the printer soon.

It feels so different to have a bed that doesn't squeak, OR stab us in the freaking shins OR has wood that we have to tape down. Tonight will be our first test drive if you know what I mean...wait, ew! Don't be gross!

Endeavour Space Shuttle

For all you non-nerds out there, today we got real nerdy and waited outside in our backyard to see the space shuttle Endeavour fly past our house. We waited for 30 minutes but then Antz and Liv couldn't take the heat and went indoors. He told me to text him when I saw it, like less than 5 minutes I heard the booming sound of a plane and all these simultaneous cheering. I almost dropped my Nikon and my phone trying to text Antz and take photos at the same time. By the time I sent him a text to come outside it was flying directly over my head. I had the Nikon D300 with the 200mm lens but for some reason *my camera is a douche* I couldn't get it to auto focus to get a better close up. Here's the best ones I got, all the crappy ones that make it look like a toy when it was incredibly massive. It was exhilarating watching it fly by. I am so happy I got a shot of Endeavour with Liv in it. I hope she'll show her great-grandchild one day.

Directly over our house

The shuttle gets lost against the mountains

folks were watching on top of this hill next to Occidental College

Pretty fucking historic

this one is my fave

YAY!!

darn power lines!

headed towards downtown LA (City Hall)

It flew right over our house and then turned around and flew by the Jet Propulsion Lab which is in La Canada. Here is an article from LA Times explaining the shuttle's route.

Anticipated fog in the Bay Area has postponed Endeavour's departure from Edwards Air Force Base from 7:15 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. That means the shuttle is now expected back in Los Angeles air space around 11:30 a.m., when it will circle numerous area landmarks.
Endeavour will fly over at least the following:

• Los Angeles City Hall
• California Science Center
• Getty Center
• Griffith Observatory
• Queen Mary
• Long Beach Aquarium
• Malibu, Venice and Huntington beaches
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Universal Studios
• Disneyland

Police are advising people to plan ahead. Consider taking public transportation or planning where you're going to park in advance. There are likely to be crowds.

The Griffith Park Observatory should be a great spot to get a close-up glimpse and photographs of the shuttle with the city in the background. There’s also plenty of space throughout the park that should offer good views.

Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge will provide free shuttle service from the parking lot of the Greek Theatre  to the Griffith Observatory beginning at 8 a.m. Friday. With plenty of parking and ample room for crowds, Universal CityWalk should be a fun viewing area as the shuttle flies over Universal Studios.

In Orange County, Disneyland would offer a similar experience. Maybe you can even take a picture of the shuttle with Sleeping Beauty Castle in the background.
Downtown, the best spots for seeing the shuttle as it passes over Los Angeles City Hall will probably be tall buildings or the top levels of nearby parking garages. City officials will open the Tom Bradley Tower to view Endeavour's flyover, and they expect spectators to gather at the newly opened Grand Park.
In Long Beach, the parks that dot Shoreline Drive or Ocean Boulevard are probably among of the best places to see the shuttle as it passes over the Queen Mary and Aquarium of the Pacific. The Queen Mary will also offer free admission between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. to anyone who tells the ticket attendant the code word "Endeavour."
And if you want to watch the shuttle land at LAX, you’re in luck. El Segundo police are blocking off sections of Imperial Avenue for public viewing. Beginning at 9 a.m., police will close the 300 to 600 blocks of East Imperial Avenue and the 700 block of West Imperial Avenue to traffic, a stretch that includes Clutter’s Park.

We plan to see it in person at the California Science Museum.

Beddy Bye

Antz and I have terrible luck with our beds. We have been sharing a bed for over 15 years now and have purchased 4 beds together in that time period. We *well I* do all the research and test them out in the store. They always seem comfy and solid, at first, then next thing you know I start tossing and turning and waking up with a sore back. I don't know if it's our mattress or my old lady back but we have been pretty miserable this last year. I blame our tiny bedroom. Antz and I are both, to put it mildly, GIANTS! So our giant bodies, along with a little lovely 30 lb. girl who sneaks into our bed in the middle of the night *most of the time I am surprised to see her in our bed in the morning, she's that quiet* and this huge cat lady

My large Lola

Our queen is maxxed out in such a tiny space.

Looks roomy until you add 2 1/2 people!

Antz and I practically have to play rock, paper, scissors to see who has to squeeze against the window side. Our mattress is on year 6 so it's definitely time to purchase a new one. Here's my dilemma, I don't want to spend a fortune on a fancy one in a queen size when I hope to be getting a king size one in 3 years *when we move, God willing* plus theres no way a king would fit in that tiny room, so it's another bargain priced Ikea mattress for us. Our bed frame is a total mess. We thought we scored a deal when we bought our Malm frame.

Our brand new bed frame and Serta mattress 6 years ago

I loved the platform style and Antz liked the dark wood finish. Little did we know that "wood finish" is merely a sticker which began to peel months after we bought it. What happened next was I found the most adorable desk at West Elm

Sheesh this is the only recent photo I have of that side of the room. That printer stand takes up too much space and clashes with the room design :(

*I thought it was perfect for bill paying yet I rarely use it* so now we have very little space between it and the foot of our bed, which means Olivia and I are constantly hitting our shins on the sharp corner of the bed. Antz is smarter than us so he hasn't bruised his leg but even the bumper we put on the corner didn't work. I have been searching for a bed that is in our price range, in the color we want and doesn't ruin my shins. I almost bought this guy but it was only in white before it sold out.

Roebling frame from West Elm

It's so lovely but I wasn't keen on spending $699 on the queen frame along with $599 for the mattress from Ikea. So I waited and waited for it to go on sale and it finally did, and then immediately sold out of all sizes except king. Bummer! So again, we are going with an Ikea frame. It's too tempting to pass up. It's a queen size frame with storage drawers underneath which we need for all our extra bedding that barely fits in our linen closet.

Oppdal queen bed frame with storage drawers

I think it's perfection for $249. Antz is tearing apart our dilapidated old bed frame and building our new sleek, fancy-pants bed tonight. Of course I'm on the hunt for some new bedding to accompany such a cool frame. These are my top choices so far, we'll see what's on sale on Black Friday.

Striped sheet set from West Elm. Yellow or grey?

Orla Kiely bedding for Bed, Bath & Beyond *sold out in stores, may be hard to find a complete set*

Still waiting on bedding from Anthropologie to go on sale. Another sucky thing is we go through featherbeds every year. We got a rad one last Christmas and it's already flat as a pancake *a very thin pancake* so now I gotta buy a new one too. Antz has been plugging away on the new bed for an hour now. I'll post pictures when he's done. Here's to a good night's sleep!

Here's the old beddy.

Hither & Thither

Hello Friends! I've had a busy morning and it's already time to pick up Liv from school so here's a few photos of the past few days. Back to school night, lunch with Evelyn & Dion *who are visiting from Paraguay* and more dining, cause all we do is eat!

Preparing lunch in the classroom kitchen

Height measurements *3rd tallest in class*

One of my favorite thing about her class *besides her amazing teachers* is there is an ipod playing music all day. I think every child needs musical stimulation to develop a creative mind.

Awesome animal X-rays

The class has started a scrapbook of candid photos of the children

Liv eating her yummy lunch

"I go school today. See Ms. Ana!"

Queen of the Fort!

We bumped into Kumbi & Tigerlily at Bon Vivant

They always *accidentally* dress alike

Dion was teaching Liv Spanish

Duck sausage at Links & Hops

Hanging with Evelyn

Love this photo

Liv showing Dion her babies

At dinner at Maximiliano's

Lunch at Good Girl Dinette

Vietnamese comfort food, chicken pot pie and fresh made tangerine soda

I adore this face!!